Gunfire into Columbus homes, businesses on the rise, with lives threatened, lost
Traci Wimberly was soundly sleeping with her 1-year-old daughter next to her one night in late March when an unknown suspect in a passing car fired a single bullet that ripped through the exterior of her home and lodged itself in her daughter’s leg.
Fortunately, Aurisa Naielle Stewart survived, but she is in the process of an expensive recovery. And Wimberly is still searching for justice for her baby.
There had been more than 135 reported incidents of gunfire into occupied homes and buildings this year in Columbus as of April 11, according to Columbus police records.
Reports of such crimes have jumped in the last two years, and whether the victims are intended targets or simply caught in the crossfire, they are often left without answers while struggling with the financial impact of the damage and grappling with feelings of insecurity in their own homes.
“That’s my biggest question sometimes is just why?” said John Dixon, whose Northeast Side home has been targeted by gunfire two separate times since February. “Somebody could have really gotten hurt ... or killed.”
Incidents of gunfire into occupied buildings on the rise
The Columbus Division of Police classifies a “discharge into a habitation” as an incident when suspects “purposely and knowingly” shoot at or into homes, businesses or any other building with people inside, said Sgt. James Fuqua, a division spokesman.
Fuqua said the investigations into these kinds of shootings are typically handled by the Columbus police’s Felony Assault Unit.
The number of reports of gunshots fired into inhabited buildings in Columbus has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2018, Columbus police reported 411 such events, records show.
By 2020, that number jumped to 700 reports. Last year, it increased again to 714 reported incidents.
The “discharge into a habitation” reports do not include cases such as Wimberly’s where a person is struck by gunshots fired into an occupied building. Those incidents are classified as felonious assaults.
In addition to Wimberly’s daughter, a 3-year-old boy was shot and hospitalized in April after more than 15 rounds were fired into his Northeast Side home in the middle of the night.
In February, an 11-yearold was grazed after a bullet went through his bedroom wall on the Far East Side. The boy felt something hit his chest but escaped without injury.
Homes aren’t the only buildings being targeted by shooters.
A 39-year-old waitress was shot just before 7 p.m. April 12 at a Roosters restaurant on East Dublin-Granville Road after a suspect fired multiple rounds into the restaurant. After this shooting and a homicide that occurred in February in the restaurant’s vestibule, Roosters announced that it was closing the Cleveland Avenue location.
Maxwell Williams, a 24-year-old Columbus man, was left paralyzed in February after being struck during an apparent drive-by shooting at Dick’s Den in the Old North neighborhood. The bullet went through the bar’s front windows and struck him in the back.
Gunshots fired indiscriminately into homes can also become deadly.
Ellen Lakey, 64, was brewing a cup of decaffeinated coffee just before 4:45 a.m. Aug. 8, 2020 when she was struck by a bullet that ripped through a wall of her fourthfloor apartment on the South Side. The mother of two with five grandchildren did not survive.
On April 25, 31-year-old Sorenta Hylton was in bed in her apartment on the city’s Southwest Side when she was struck by a gunshot fired into the building around 3:45 a.m., police said.
Hylton was taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where she died less than an hour later, police said. Three children under 13 were asleep inside the apartment, but none was injured.
Three days later, on April 28, police arrested 18-yearold Tyreese Watkins, of the
South Side, in connection with Hylton’s death. According to court records, Watkins was identified by a witness as one of four people who fired multiple times in the apartment building before driving away in a gray vehicle.
A month after his property was riddled by bullets for the second time, Dixon said he still doesn’t know why unknown suspects have shot into his home and put his family’s lives at risk.
Fuqua said a singular cause for discharge into habitation reports — gangs, domestic disputes or simply senseless violence — does not exist.
These cases often have a “mixed bag” of causes, Fuqua said. Victims and suspects might have a relationship, but stray bullets frequently strike homes or innocent people having no connection to the shooter.
Sometimes the shooter might miss or have the wrong address, Fuqua said, so they shoot the home of someone with no involvement.
“We see just as much of that as we do of the ones that are intended targets,” Fuqua said.
‘I was screaming to God ... ‘You can’t have my baby’ ’
On March 26, Wimberly and her family returned to her South Side home after a long day of searching for a new home closer to family in Middletown. Wimberly and her boyfriend went to bed with 1-year-old Aurisa asleep next to her and her boyfriend.
They were suddenly awakened at about 1 a.m. by a loud “pop” and their toddler crying, eventually figuring out that an unknown person had shot a single bullet into their home that struck her daughter’s thigh.
If the bullet had gone one more inch in another direction, Wimberly said someone in that bed might have died.
“We held her up and there was a hole through her diaper,” Wimberly said. “I was screaming to God … ‘You can’t have my baby.’”
Wimberly said after four hours at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the doctors sent them home, leaving the bullet in Aurisa’s leg.
But Aurisa’s leg began to abscess as a result of her injury, and the little girl had to have surgery April 8 to remove the bullet.
Wimberly said her health insurance would not cover the cost of the $18,182 surgery, so the family began a GoFundMe fundraiser to pay for Aurisa’s recovery.
Wimberly said her daughter is healing well and now back at daycare, but the incident has left her shaken.
“That’s where babies are supposed to be safest, in the bed with their parents,” Wimberly said.
‘It’s a struggle now’ paying for repairs after damage to home
Dixon, his wife, Elgetha, and their two children were in their bedrooms on Feb. 23 when they heard multiple gunshots, not immediately understanding what was happening.
“The first couple shots hit my son’s room, and then as (the suspects) came around the corner in a vehicle, they hit the front of the house,” Elgetha Dixon said.
The parents called police, discovering damage from 9mm bullets throughout the house, including their children’s bedrooms. Thankfully, John Dixon said, no one was injured, but they were left with about $7,000 in damages to repair.
After patching up their home from that first shooting, their home was shot up in another drive-by shooting on March 19. Elegtha Dixon said the family watched as bullets suddenly flew past them, striking John Dixon’s mattress as he laid in it, their son’s TV and bed, and the chair that Elgetha Dixon prays in.
“The bullet literally went past my head,” Elgetha said. “If I was sitting back, I would have got shot.”
They called 911 three times and waited nearly an hour before an officer arrived, John Dixon said.
“These ones were pretty close,” Elgetha Dixon said of the second shooting incident. “We literally were blessed not to get hit.”
The Dixons estimated the damage from the second shooting to be about $3,000. They’ve replaced windows, patched up walls, and repaired damage to bathrooms so far, Elgetha Dixon said.
The couple filed their first homeowner’s insurance claim in 12 years, but only for the first shooting because they were concerned two reports could cause problems with their insurer. Though they’re considering moving, John Dixon said they would have to continue paying for repairs in addition to preparing their home for the market and taking care of their mortgage.
“It’s just a struggle now,” John Dixon said.
What can police do about shootings into occupied buildings?
Sometimes a victim might report the shooting into their home, but Columbus police also use ShotSpotter, the gunshot detection service that alerts patrol officers of shots fired in about 12 square miles of the city. Wimberly said ShotSpotter was used to detect the shooting into her home and alerted the police while she was still trying to figure out what happened.
After arriving on scene, officers search the area for victims and evidence and decide if more resources are needed depending on the situation, Fuqua said.
When responding to discharge into habitation reports, officers and investigators attempt to gather shell casings, video footage of the crime captured from the any Ring or other security cameras victims and neighboring property owners might have, or personal items left behind by suspects, Fuqua said.
Shell casings are important because “those firearms could be linked to other shootings that we could potentially use to solve another crime,” he said.
Columbus police work with local agencies and federal partners like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to investigate firearms-related violence, he said.
Fuqua said he was unable to comment publicly when asked by The Dispatch about any specific measures Columbus police are taking to reduce the number of incidents of gunfire into occupied structures.
Wimberly said that the police have reviewed video footage from her security camera of a suspect car and recovered a 9mm shell casing from the scene. Wimberly also reached out to photoshop experts to enhance the video in hope of finding a license plate number on the vehicle, which had one headlight out.
“The expectation here for the police is to solve a crime, and in order for them to do that, there are bits and pieces of the puzzle that they have to put together,” Wimberly said.
Wimberly said she believes the police are doing what they can with the limited amount of evidence, but she also said that the detective investigating her daughter’s shooting could not locate the bullet recovered from Aurisa’s leg because of a miscommunication within the division.
John Dixon said that police officers collected shells from a 9mm gun after the first shooting and a .40 caliber gun after the second. The police also recovered video footage of the shootings from the Dixons’ and their neighbors’ personal security cameras, which might lead to more information on potential suspects.
Fuqua encourages occupants to contact the police if their home or business is shot, no matter how insignificant the damage.
Community urged to be more vigilant in helping police
Before the shootings, the Dixons said they never locked their doors or had any problems. But now, they want to leave a home they no longer feel safe in.
John Dixon said he hears gunfire and tires screeching in the night constantly in his neighborhood, a problem that began only about three months ago.
Wimberly said she’s seen gun violence firsthand in her community, once witnessing a teenager being shot at while she was driving.
While the police investigate these crimes, Wimberly said that it’s up to the community to step up and help stop violence in the streets. These crimes can happen to anyone in Columbus at any time, she said.
“If you see something say something, if you know something say something,” Wimberly said of anyone with information about gunfire into homes or other crimes. “It’s getting out of hand.”