COLUMBUS – Police are looking for several suspects they say held four men hostage for 10 hours before shooting two of them to death and injuring three other people at a West Side apartment complex.
Desmond Webster, 35 (above left), and Julius Anderson, 22 (above right), were both charged with aggravated murder after detectives said they were among at least four suspects who broke into an apartment in the Wedgewood Village Apartments at approximately 4:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and held the four people inside hostage, threatening to shoot them, until nearly 2:00 Wednesday morning when they finally opened fire, hitting two of the men and killing them while injuring a woman in a nearby apartment, Homicide Unit Sgt. Jeff Strayer said.
Abdul Cadir Ali Yussef, 19, was pronounced dead at the scene and Mohamed Ali Mohamed, 22, was taken to Mt. Carmel West Hospital where he died shortly after noon on Wednesday, Strayer said.
Mulhidin Haji, 26, was pistol whipped and was taken to Doctors Hospital with moderate injuries, Strayer said.
Omar Mohamed Omar, 21, escaped by jumping out a second story window, suffering minor injuries, Strayer said.
Ashley Tucker, 27, was asleep in her lower floor apartment and received a gunshot wound from a bullet fired from the upstairs apartment that traveled down through the floor, said Strayer. She was in stable condition at Mt. Carmel West.
Webster and Anderson are considered armed and dangerous and Strayer says investigators are still working to identify the other two suspects.
Anyone with any information about the incident is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Crime Stoppers of Central Ohio at 614-645-TIPS.
Strayer says a vehicle taken from the scene was later found, burned out and abandoned, in the 1600 block of Rosemont Avenue.