Second suspect vehicle identified in mass shooting
Investigators have released images of a second vehicle they believe was involved in a drive-by shooting into a crowd holding a vigil Saturday night southeast of Columbus that left one woman dead and injured five others.
The surveillance images, released Tuesday by the Franklin County Sheriff 's office, show what could be a white, newer model Ford Edge or Lincoln sports utility vehicle. Deputies say one or more occupants of that vehicle, along with someone in a dark-colored sports utility vehicle – possibly a Dodge Durango – fired multiple rounds into a group of people at a memorial in the parking lot of the Refugee Center shopping plaza along Chatterton Road near Noe-bixby Road in Truro Township.
Both vehicles were traveling west on Chatterton Road around 7:30 p.m. Saturday when one or more people opened fire on a small group who had gathered in the parking lot outside of the Dollar General for a vigil commemorating the death of a man who was killed at that location one year ago in what authorities said was a drug deal gone bad.
Investigators say Latoya Renee Carpenter,
39, was driving eastbound on Chatterton Road when she apparently drove through the path of the gunfire from the westbound vehicles and a stray bullet fatally struck her in the head. Her car continued east on Chatterton before drifting across the westbound lane and crashing into a parked car in the Cross Tree Apartments where she and her fiancé, 50-year-old Perez Williams, resided.
The mother of three was pronounced dead at the scene around 7:50 p.m., Columbus police Lt. Dan Hargus said on
Saturday night.
Williams said that Carpenter had just left the couple's apartment to pick up her 11-year-old daughter down the road at her sister's residence.
Five others struck by gunfire were transported to area hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening. The youngest victim, a 12-year-old, was transported to Nationwide Children's Hospital, according to the sheriff's office.
The sheriff 's office has not released their identities, nor have deputies made any arrests in Saturday night's shooting. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the sheriff 's detective bureau at 614-525-3351.
The vigil gathering was held to mark the one-year anniversary of the April 17, 2020 shooting death of 28-year-old Jarrin Hickman, of the Southeast Side.
Hickman was shot and killed at the scene that day after a drug deal involving marijuana went bad, according to court records and the sheriff's office. Varmunyah Dunor, now of the Near East Side, was arrested on a charge of murder in Hickman's death and is awaiting trial, according to court records. elagatta@dispatch.com @Ericlagatta