Six shooting incidents with teens as victims or suspects

COLUMBUS – Police were investigating a rash of shooting incidents involving teenagers as victims or suspects.

That includes two 13-year-old girls who were injured in separate incidents between Sunday and Tuesday.

In the most recent incident, a girl was shot and her Northeast Side house set on fire early Tuesday morning, police said.

The girl was sitting in her bedroom in the home on Sandalwood Place just before 3:30 a.m. when she saw an orange light shining through her window and heard a loud bang, according to Det. Bob McCotter of the Felony Assault Unit.

The girl’s father went into her bedroom to check on her condition and determined everything was all right, but after her father left the room, McCotter says the victim heard several more loud bangs and realized she had been shot. She victim ran out of her bedroom towards her parent’s bedroom for help.

After the gunshots stopped, the girl’s father looked out the window and realized the back of the house was on fire.

He was able to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher and was able to extinguish the fire and the house suffered minor damage.

The teen was transported to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in stable condition with a single gunshot wound and is expected to survive her injuries, McCotter said.

Investigators say there were two glass containers which had contained gasoline that were used to ignite the back of the house.

Authorities say a 13-year-old Ohio girl was shot inside a North Linden home early Sunday after fleeing inside from a group of teenage boys.

Columbus police say the victim was sitting with friends on the porch of a home in the 1700 block of Piedmont Road shortly before 1:00 a.m. Sunday when the teens approached from an alley.

Police said the girl and her friends ran inside the home, and one member of the group began firing at the residence.

The victim was struck once in the thigh.

Police said witnesses were unable to provide any information about the suspects.

Police are looking for a 17-year-old boy who has been charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of a man during a fight on the Southeast Side Monday afternoon.

Frank Turner was charged in the death of John Arthur Wilson III, who was shot during a fight involving more than a half-dozen people in the 1100 block of Smith Road at approximately 12:58 p.m., Homicide Unit detectives said.

Officers received reports of six to eight people fighting in the street outside 1182 Smith Road and additional callers reported hearing gunshots.

Officers located Wilson, 22, suffering from at least one gunshot wound.

Columbus Division of Fire paramedics took him to Grant Medical Center where he died at 1:52 p.m.

This is the 40th homicide of the year in Columbus.

Anyone with information regarding the incident or the whereabouts of Frank Turner is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.

Shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dalevonte Vance told police officers he was driving eastbound in an alley south of E. Main Street when a black male, described as 16-17 years old, wearing a jean jacket, white T-shirt, and blue jeans, fired two shots into the passenger side of Vance’s Honda Accord before fleeing.

Vance was taken to an area hospital where he is expected to make a complete recovery from a single gunshot wound to his right leg.

About three hours later, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the left leg when a passenger in the back seat of a white Dodge Charger, which was traveling southbound on Dresden Street near Loretta Avenue, fired a weapon at the occupants of another vehicle, which was passing in the opposite direction.

Police say the victim was of the shooting was “extremely uncooperative and combative.”

Officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 400 block of S. 17th Street early Tuesday morning and located a juvenile male victim who was later transported to Children’s Hospital in stable condition.

Officers are trying to locate where the shooting took place.

Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 614-645-4141.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Donovan Foster was arrested Monday on a charge of reckless homicide in the May 4 shooting death of Kaleb Banks, 26, in an apartment on S. Hampton Road.