North Linden man’s fatal shooting still unsolved

A Columbus man was gunned down as he was walking to his North Linden house three years ago. His fatal shooting remains unsolved, and city police are asking for the public’s help identifying his killer.

Kenneth Pearson, 42, was fatally shot on Loretta Avenue on Aug. 25, 2015. A 911 caller said she found Pearson on the front lawn and he wasn’t breathing. He had been shot in the back multiple times.

Neighbors told The Dispatch that they knew Pearson as “Kenny,” and said he cared about improving his neighborhood.

Born in Alabama, Pearson moved to Sandusky in northern Ohio as a teenager and joined the Navy after high school, his sister-in-law Tanitra Hale said Friday.

He became a construction worker after four years in the Navy, and eventually moved to Columbus to pursue better job opportunities, she said.

Pearson had six children and an 8-year-old granddaughter.

His brother, Anthony Pearson, 46, who was Hale’s husband, was fatally shot nearly two years later in Sandusky. Joel Miles, 31, is charged with murder in Anthony Pearson’s death. He has pleaded not guilty and the case is making its way through Erie County Common Pleas Court.

Miles was serving a fiveyear prison sentence on an attempted murder charge when Kenneth Pearson was fatally shot. Hale, however, believes the deaths of her husband and brother-in-law are connected.

Her husband was trying to help solve his brother’s homicide when he was killed, and she hopes that anyone with information about the killings comes forward to help solve the crime and provide the family with closure.

Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward for anyone who can provide information that leads to an arrest and indictment in the case.

Anyone who has information about the fatal shooting is asked to call 614-461TIPS, submit a tip online at stopcrime.org or submit a tip through the P3 Tips mobile app.