Man found fatally shot on West Side

Columbus homicide detectives are investigating after a man was found fatally shot beside a West Side trash bin Monday.

Julian Davis Higgins, 31, of the Near East Side, was found in the 600 block of Wedgewood Drive around 3:15 a.m. Monday.

A man called 911 and said he found the body while taking out trash. He said Higgins appeared to have been shot and had blood on his abdomen. The body was cold, the caller said.

The caller told a dispatcher that he and his neighbors had heard a gunshot roughly an hour before he called 911.

Higgins was unresponsive when police arrived. Columbus fire medics pronounced him dead at the scene at 3:26 a.m.

Police interviewed two witnesses in the area, according to police dispatch logs. The investigation continues.

Higgins' death was the 70th homicide in Columbus this year.

The 69th homicide also remains under investigation.

In that case, 35-year-old Daniel B. Connell of the Far West Side was found Sunday on East Lincoln Street near 4th Street. He had been shot multiple times.

A woman walking through Italian Village on her way to work near the former Wonder Bread complex found the body and called 911 at 6:26 a.m.

“There’s a man lying on the ground, and I think there’s blood coming out of his head,” the woman told a Columbus police dispatcher.

Columbus fire medics pronounced the victim dead at 6:36 a.m.

Anyone with information on either homicide is asked to call 614-645-4730.