COLUMBUS – Even as two young children killed along with a man at a Southeast Side apartment complex were remembered in a prayer vigil, Columbus added four more murders to its yearly total over the weekend.
In a call for an end to the violence that has raised the death toll in the city to record levels, The Columbus Dispatch reports that about 40 people watched Saturday afternoon as heart-shaped padlocks were engraved with the letters, “D” and “L” and then hooked to the Rich Street bridge downtown in memory of Demitrius Wall’neal9, and his 6-year-old sister, Londynn.
Columbus saw the total number of homicides reach 190 with four incidents over the weekend, starting with two fatal shootings that occurred about 20 minutes apart Friday night, one of which claimed the life of a promising young rapper.
Officers dispatched to the 2300 Block of Century Drive on the Northeast Side at approximately 10:18 p.m. on a reported shooting found Kameron Guishard, a rap musician known as Kam Nutty, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound, according to Sgt. Edward Powell III of the Columbus police Homicide Unit.
A civilian and officers rendered first aid until paramedics arrived and took the 20-year-old Guishard to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, where he died at 11:05 p.m., Powell said.
About 20 minutes after that shooting, officers were called to the 300 block of East 12th Avenue where they found a blood trail but were unable to locate a victim of the shooting report that prompted the call, Sgt. David Shimberg of the Homicide Unit said.
A short time later, police were informed that a shooting victim had walked into OSU Wexner Medical Center.
Fentahun Mengistu received emergency lifesaving medical treatment, but Shimberg says the 38-year-old man died at 11:19 p.m.
Investigators were told that Mengistu was shot on E. 12th Avenue from a vehicle that fled the scene, Shimberg said.
UPDATE 12/14/21 6:48 a.m.: This story has been edited to reflect that a suspect has been named in the following incident.
Police are looking for a 20-year-old man in connection with a deadly shooting Sunday afternoon.
Avonte Sanford has been charged with murder in the death of Anton Saunders, Sgt. James Marable of the Homicide Unit said.
Saunders was with a group of men in the 6700 block of Alexdon Court on the Southeast Side just after 1:45 Sunday afternoon when one of the men produced a handgun,
At least one shot was fired, and the 19-year-old Saunders was fatally injured, Marable said.
The gunman fled the scene, and Marable says it was not immediately clear what prompted the shooting.
The total number of homicides for the year grew to 190 with the addition of a death that was discovered last Wednesday and ruled a homicide.
A man whose burned body was found beneath an underpass near the 500 block of Edgar Waldo Way just before noon on Dec. 8 was ruled a homicide following an autopsy by the Franklin County Coroner’s Office.
The body was burned beyond recognition and investigators were able to determine only that the victim was a male, but that is all the information we have at this time, according to Sgt. Eric Piliya of the Homicide Unit.
Anyone with information on any of these incidents is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).
Gun, ammo found at Columbus high school
A 17-year-old boy has been charged with carrying concealed weapons, receiving stolen property and conveying a firearm into a school safety zone after officers found a handgun and more than 40 rounds of ammunition in a backpack at Mifflin High School Friday morning.
Detectives with the Columbus Police say police received a call from the school’s principal reporting that a student has brought a handgun into the school and the building was on lockdown.
The suspect was detained as he was trying to leave the school grounds and a 9mm Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol was found by officers and school officials inside a small bag that was lying on the bleachers in the gymnasium.
The handgun contained one live round of ammunition and authorities also found a standard gun magazine loaded with 15 live rounds of ammunition and an extended magazine loaded with 27 live rounds, detectives said.
After interviewing witnesses and reviewing the school’s security video footage, officers were able to determine that the suspect had carried the bag that contained the handgun and ammunition to the gym where he handed it off to another student and asked that student to hide it.
The weapon had been reported stolen from an auto in April, police said.