2 homicides, 6 shootings on Sunday
Columbus continues pace for 2021 to be its most violent year ever
With two more homicides in Columbus on Sunday, 2021 remains on track to be the deadliest year in the city’s history, recently surpassing 2017 for secondworst homicide total ever and on track to surpass last year’s all-time record.
The number of non-fatal shootings also continues to rise, remaining on pace to make 2021 the most-violent year in the city’s history.
Around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, police were called to the 6100 block of Stornoway Drive, on the East Side, on a report of a shooting. Rodney Brown, 46, was found shot and pronounced dead on the scene.
The investigation determined that Brown had been involved with a verbal confrontation with 23-year-old Brian K. Smith, who lives in the area, prior to the shooting. Smith has been charged with murder and an arrest warrant has been filed in Franklin County Municipal Court.
A short time later, detectives received word from Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center that a patient who had been shot on Aug. 30 had succumbed to his injuries.
Marcus Payne, 27, had been brought to the Downtown hospital around 1:50 a.m. on Aug. 30 by his brother. According
to the investigation, the two brothers had followed and attempted to confront people they thought had broken into a vehicle. During that confrontation, Payne was shot. No suspects have been identified and it is unknown where the actual shooting took place.
Around 5 p.m. on Sunday, police were called to the 1200 block of Brookway Road, in the Colonial Village apartment complex on the city’s East Side, on a report of a shooting.
Guann Gregory, 24, was found critically wounded and rushed to Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center, where he died. No suspects have been identified.
The homicide total in Columbus stood at 147 as of 2:30 p.m. Monday, making 2021 at least the second-deadliest year in the city’s history. The deadliest year on record, 2020, saw 175 homicides. At the current pace of killings, that record is expected to fall before the end of this year.
Detectives are also investigating the death of a man who was found around 1:50 p.m. Sunday in an alley off the 2600 block of Beulah Road in North Linden. According to police, the man, who had not been publicly identified as of early Monday afternoon, is believed to have been run over by a vehicle.
To date, homicide detectives have made an arrest or otherwise cleared 75 of the 147 cases in 2021, a solve rate of 51%. The most-recent arrests came over the weekend, as police arrested two teenagers accused of killing a 22-yearold man on the Far East Side in August.
According to court records, Tyree Burke, of the Southeast Side, and Micah Norwood, of the Far East Side, both 18, are accused of shooting 22-year-old Stephen Gonzalez-gammon on the 100 block of Heatherbridge Lane on the Far East Side.
Gonzalez-gammon was found shot around 5 a.m. on Aug. 26.
There have also been 1,100 felonious assaults in Columbus this year, most of them non-fatal shootings. At this time in 2020, there had been 964 felonious assaults and in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 536 felonious assaults reported as of Sept. 13.
At least six shootings were reported on Sunday.
h At 1:45 a.m., a man reported he was shot while pumping gas at the intersection of Norton and Hall Roads on the Far West Side. The 39-year-old man drove himself 23 miles away to Mount Carmel Reynoldsburg emergency room for treatment.
h At 2:53 a.m., police were called to the intersection of 4th and High streets in the Short North. A person reported they were jumped and the victim’s brother, who is licensed to carry a concealed firearm, pulled his weapon. Shots were fired by the suspects as they then fled, but the victim was not struck.
h At 5:26 a.m., a 41-year-old man reported he had been wounded during a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Thurman Avenue and Blackberry Alley in German Village.
h At 7:13 p.m., a 24-year-old man was shot in the leg on the 1000 block of East 15th Avenue in South Linden. Responding patrol officers applied a tourniquet, which police said may have saved the man’s life.
h At 10:22 p.m., a 17-year-old walked into Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center Downtown with a gunshot wound, but refused to tell detectives anything about who might have shot him, when or where he was shot.
h At 10:40 p.m., a 27-year-old man was shot on the 1300 block of Sharon Green Drive on the Northeast Side.
No suspects have been identified in any of the shootings. Anyone with information is asked to call Columbus police at 614-645-4545 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.
Bethany Bruner is a reporter covering public safety, breaking news and police. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner