COLUMBUS – Police say a 5-year-old boy playing with his mother’s loaded firearm in a North Side apartment late Saturday was wounded in the chest when the firearm discharged, one of several shooting victims injured or killed in the city over the weekend.
Officers were called to the apartment at about 10:45 p.m. Saturday and found the boy had already been taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital with a gunshot wound to the upper right chest. Police say the boy was stabilized and is expected to recover.
A woman was killed and two other people injured when someone opened fire during a party at a Merion Village Airbnb early Sunday morning, police said.
Shamaya Dickerson, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, which happened just after 4:00 a.m. behind 345 Whittier Street, Sgt. David Shimberg of the Homicide Unit said.
Derinn Echols, 21, and Tiffany Spiller, 22, were also shot and taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center where they are in stable condition and are expected to recover from their injuries, Shimberg said.
The motive in the incident is still unclear and the investigation continues.
This is the 10th homicide of 2021 in Columbus.
Anyone with information regarding the shooting is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Section at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.
Authorities say gunfire outside a “non-COVI compliant” house party near the main campus of Ohio State University that hit multiple vehicles and homes and prompted a campus-area safety alert may have stemmed from an exchange of gunfire between two groups, police said.
Neighbors called Columbus police shortly before 12:30 a.m. Saturday and arriving officers reported partygoers fleeing the residence at 298 E. 17th Avenue through first-floor windows and doors.
Michael Garlinger, 20, was sitting in a car in front of the home when a bullet smashed through the glass, narrowly missing him.
Sgt. Dennis Fox, of the Felony Assault Unit, said no injuries were immediately reported but multiple vehicles and two residences were struck by the gunfire.
A 23-year-old man was in stable condition after being shot while driving on W. Broad Street near Dana Avenue in Franklinton just after 2:00 Sunday morning and a 26-year-old man was shot in the leg and a 37-year-old man was shot in the chest while they were sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot of the Waffle House at 1425 Cassady Avenue just before 4:30 Sunday morning.