COLUMBUS – A man and a woman were killed in separate shooting incidents Monday and the suspect in one of them took his own life as police closed in.
The deaths raised the total number of homicides in Columbus this year to 122, though that total may be amended following the news that a teen’s death in July was the result of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police say Mervin Hines III was charged with murder in connection with the 121st homicide of the year, the shooting death of a woman found in a vehicle parked outside a residence in the 3500 block of Alberta Street on the Hilltop just after noon Monday, Sgt. David Shimberg said.
UPDATE 10/8/20 6:44 a.m.: The victim in this incident has been identified as Maechell Hines, 37, according to police.
SWAT officers went to a home on Felix Drive at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday to arrest him but Shimberg says the 37-year-old man shot himself.
The 122nd homicide of the year started out as what appeared to be a traffic accident on the Northeast Side late Monday night.
Officers responding to the intersection of Joyce Avenue and Windsor Avenue at 10:40 p.m. on a report of an injury accident discovered a 28-year-old man who detectives say had been shot to death, Sgt. Eric Pilya of the Homicide Unit said.
A blue Chevrolet hybrid vehicle had driven off the southwest corner at the intersection and into a ditch.
It was later discovered that Roddale Garmany had been shot and was later pronounced at scene, the 122nd homicide victim of the year, Pilya said.
There was no information on suspects available Tuesday morning.
The incident remains under investigation.
Anyone with information regarding these homicides is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office has ruled that a 15-year-old boy died in July of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police said.
Marcus Peters died inside a home on Gerbert Road on July 11 and police originally treated the incident as the 66th homicide of 2020 in Columbus but further investigation revealed that Marcus had placed a handgun to his head and pulled the trigger on a dare from a friend, Sgt. James Marable of the Homicide Unit said.
After the teen was shot, others present at the scene removed the handgun and fled the residence without summonsing aid. Marable says the absence of a weapon, as well as the presence of numerous bullet holes both inside and outside the structure prompted detectives to treat the death as a homicide.
The same residence had been the target of a drive-by shooting that occurred a week earlier and Marable says, while detectives were at scene investigating the homicide, a crowd gathered and several large fights broke out. These fights continued to escalate throughout the evening until several individuals in the crowd fired shots, which did not result in any reported injuries.