‘Shocked and heartbroken’
Community reeling from kids’ shooting deaths
The lead detective who had to stare into the car Tuesday night that held the bodies of a fourth-grade boy, his baby sister and a grown man – all killed in a hail of gunfire from two suspects still on the run – said that the killings were a targeted assassination and that no resources are being spared to find the shooters.
Columbus police homicide Detective
Terry Kelley, at a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, called 9-yearold Demetrius Wall-neal and 6-yearold Londynn Wall-neal beautiful children, and said the scene of the triple homicide Tuesday night inside a car in the Winchester Lakes Apartment complex was shocking even to seasoned investigators.
“I can tell you that this one was different,” he said. “Londynn, the 6-yearold little girl, was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful little girl. Her brother, the
same thing. That takes a toll on the officers.”
Also killed in the shooting that happened just before 6:30 p.m. in the 6600 block of Kodiak Drive on the city’s Southeast Side was 22-year-old Charles Wade. Authorities have not said what his relationship was to the children.
Police said earlier that two armed suspects walked up to the vehicle and each fired “without any apparent warning or provocation.” Police had said earlier that a third suspect waited in a nearby vehicle and drove the two shooters away, but that was not addressed again at Wednesday’s briefing.
Kelly wouldn’t say how many rounds were fired, but he said it was many. He said investigators are still canvassing the neighborhood and are hoping some surveillance camera footage will help solve the crime quickly.
When asked if the violence was retaliatory in nature or gang-related, Kelly said everything is still being investigated.
Columbus Assistant Police Chief Lashanna Potts, speaking at a media briefing at the scene Tuesday night with the mother of the children wailing in the background, vowed: “We will find these monsters. This is unacceptable.”
The Wall-neal siblings were both students in the Canal Winchester school district. And so the district joins the rest of community in its shock and its mourning.
“It is with a great deal of sadness that we inform our school community of an awful event,” the district said in a letter sent to parents. “Tuesday evening two of our students died tragically, Demetrius Wall-neal (Grade 4 at Winchester Trail Elementary School) and his sister Londynn Wall-neal (Kindergarten at Indian Trail Elementary School). We are shocked and heartbroken, please hold the family in your thoughts during this unimaginable time. Counselors are available in all of the school buildings, to support students and staff and address anyone who may need assistance related to this event.”
These three deaths were the latest in what’s another record-setting year of deadly violence in the city of Columbus, with these killings raising the total homicides in 2021 to 186. That’s a singleyear record for the city.
And it has been an especially deadly year of violence against children: There were been 27 people killed in Columbus in 2021 who are under 20 years old. Sixteen of them were minors including the two children slain Tuesday night.
That was an issue that Mayor Andrew J. Ginther addressed Wednesday as he mourned the loss of Demitrius and Londynn and pleaded with everyone to pray for their families, first responders and for this entire community.
“I need each and everyone one you to step up and do your part,” the mayor said. “We are fighting for the soul of our city.”
As he recounted putting his own 11year-old to bed Tuesday night, he said he couldn’t escape thoughts of the Wallneals.
“What were their favorite stories, books, games? What was on their list for Santa come Christmas?” he wondered aloud.
The children of the community, he said, “are our collective responsibilities”
and everyone must now step forward to protect them.
Columbus police Chief Elaine Bryant also spoke of the Christmas holiday.
“A mother should be preparing to wrap Christmas presents for her child,” she said. “But instead, she has to figure out how she’s going to bury her children.”
Bryant urged community members to speak up, saying repeatedly that someone knows something and that police can’t “do this alone.” She also said that there’s no such thing as an insignificant piece of evidence.
“We are consistently coming up with initiatives to be proactive, consistently coming up with initiatives to apprehend violent offenders,” Bryant said. “But again, we cannot do this work alone. We need your help. We’re imploring you to speak up.”
Killings only add to growing list of children killed in Columbus
On Wednesday morning, that eerily quiet parking lot at Winchester Lakes
was barren of people, and visible signs of the unimaginable horror that unfolded there the night before had been erased. A private security guard inched his car down the streets in the complex, and seemed to be on the lookout for strangers.
During a briefing Tuesday night at the apartment complex, Columbus Assistant Police Chiefpotts said officers who were dispatched to the apartments on a report of shots fired tried to save the three victims but ultimately, they were all pronounced dead at 6:45 p.m.
Potts’ outrage and heartbreak were clear Tuesday night.
“We have two young kids who have been murdered,” she said. “This is unacceptable. I am pissed...it’s getting tiresome...this gun violence has got to stop.”
Even as the she spoke, the wails of distraught woman standing beyond the yellow crime-scene tape echoed across the night air.
“They are babies. They deserve to be here. This mother is grieving, this family is devastated,” Potts said. “...There is nothing I can say to this family that will bring them closure.”
On Wednesday, Bryant said they are always concerned about retaliatory violence and she said that’s all the more reason that the shooters need to be arrested quickly. Detective Kelley gave his cell phone publicly and urged people to call if they know anything about the homicides at all.
“You would not hesitate to call if you would have seen those kids last night and the state they were in,” he said. His number is 614-778-9706.
Columbus Public Safety Director Robert W. Clark started his remarks by calling this “a somber day.”
“We have lost two of our children to senseless violence committed by cowards,” he said. “I refuse to get used to the feeling that I have today. I intend to never get used to this feeling of losing our children.”
And he added his own plea that everyone in the city needs to work to end this violence.
“We need you to not take this as a normal day in the city of Columbus,” he said. “This feeling of losing our children cannot become normalized.”
Before Tuesday night, three other children under 10 had been killed this year.
The minors lost to violence in the city in 2021 are: Alyse Williams (6); Ava Williams (9); Dayvion Jones (14);; Dayvion Burt (14); Trevon Dickson (15); Olivia Kurtz (16); Ty’sean Finch (16); Bryson Brown (4); Makenzi Ridley (17); Jayce O’neal (17); Joseph Lian (17); Daymar Carlisle (14); Rycheous Mckinney (16); Jakwan Radford (17); Londynn Wallneal (6); and Demetrius Wall-neal (9).
Anyone with information on any homicide can call the Columbus Division of Police’s Homicide Unit at 614645-4730 or report an anonymous tip to the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614461-8477. hzachariah@dispatch.com @hollyzachariah elagatta@dispatch.com