The Columbus Dispatch

Fatal shootings under investigat­ion on NE Side and in Truro Twp.

- Bethany Bruner

Fatal shootings early Friday near a gas station on Columbus' Northeast Side and Thursday evening in Truro Township have left two 21-year-old men dead, authoritie­s say.

Columbus police are investigat­ing after a 21-year-old man was shot and killed near a gas station on the Northeast Side.

Around 1:20 a.m. Friday, officers were called to the Speedway gas station at 2875 Stelzer Road, on a report of a shooting.

Officers found 21-year-old Zemyre Abraham inside a vehicle that was parked along the curb on Stelzer Road. Abraham was rushed to an area hospital, but he died from his injuries at 2:03 a.m. Friday.

Detectives are investigat­ing whether an argument may have preceded the shooting, but no suspects have been identified by homicide detectives investigat­ing the fatal shooting.

Abraham's death was one of at least four shootings to occur within a 12-hour period Thursday into Friday in the city. Thus far, none of the other shootings has led to a fatality.

Sheriff’s office investigat­ing homicide in Truro Township

The Franklin County Sheriff's office is investigat­ing a fatal shooting that occurred Thursday evening near the intersecti­on of Noe Bixby and Chatterton roads in Truro Township.

Deputies received multiple 911 calls around 7:30 p.m. about shots being fired in the area and responded, finding 21year-old Christophe­r Roberts Jr., of the Southeast Side, lying on a stairwell landing at the Cross Key apartment complex. Roberts was rushed to Mount Carmel East hospital but died from his injuries.

Roberts' most recent address, according to court records, was in the Cross Key apartment complex.

According to the sheriff's office, the preliminar­y investigat­ion shows Roberts was “ambushed and shot” at the rear of the nearby Thirsty Zebra drivethru, located at 2960 Noe Bixby Road. Roberts then ran to the Cross Key apartments and collapsed.

At least four and possibly five suspects are believed to be involved, the sheriff 's office said. The suspects fled in a maroon four-door Hyundai, possibly a 2009 Hyundai Sonata. Detectives are examining evidence collected at the scene, including video and shell casings.

Photograph­s taken from the video show at least one of the suspects wearing a mask.

No suspects have been publicly identified as of Friday afternoon. Anyone with informatio­n on their identities is asked to call detectives at 614-645-3351.

The area where the shooting occurred is in a small portion of Truro Township around the intersecti­on of Chatterton Road and Noe-bixby Road that had not been annexed into Columbus in southeast Franklin County.

It is just across Chatterton Road from the site of a drive-by shooting in April 2021 in which a woman was fatally shot while driving and 5 others were injured. The incident occurred during a memorial event at a strip mall for a homicide victim killed one year earlier in the same location during a drug transactio­n gone bad.

The woman driving by lived in the Cross Key apartments and had just left the apartment complex to pick up a child when she apparently got caught in the crossfire of the drive-by shooter and was fatally struck, causing her car to leave Chatterton Road and crash into vehicles in the parking lot outside one of the other buildings in the Cross Key complex.

Anyone with informatio­n about either of the two latest homicides or the 2021 incident is asked to call Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS. All calls to Crime Stoppers are anonymous.

Dispatch reporter Jessica Orozco contribute­d to this story. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner

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