COLUMBUS – Columbus has matched the record for the number of homicides in a single year with nearly two months left in 2021.
UPDATE 11/11/21 7:54 a.m.: The victim in this homicide has been identified by police as Abraha Ermias, 21.
The 175th murder of the year occurred late Monday morning outside the Target store in the 4100 block of Morse Crossing, where an unidentified man in his 20’s was gunned down by a man who drove off in a dark sedan, Sgt. Eric Pilya of the Columbus Police Homicide Unit said.
This ties the record number of homicides reported last year.
Pilya says the man entered the Target at 11:28 a.m. and made a purchase at the Starbuck’s.
He was waiting in front of the store when a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and gray or tan long pants approached him and shot him before leaving the scene in a dark colored sedan, possibly a Chevrolet Impala.
The victim died at scene.
Pilya says detectives do not think the shooting was a random attack.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).