COLUMBUS – The murder rate in Columbus has hit a 10-year high following an eruption of violence which has seen four people killed and two more injured in less than 24 hours.
Two people, one of them a 17-year-old girl, were killed and one person injured in a shooting at a Southeast Side apartment complex yesterday afternoon and a 25-year-old man was one of two people shot in a vehicle that then crashed through several apartment buildings on the Northeast Side about 45 minutes after the first incident, said Sgt. Stanley Latta of the Homicide Unit.
None of the incidents appear to be related, police said.
The 107 homicides for the year in Columbus is the most since 2008 where 109 murders were recorded. There were 106 murders in all of 2016.
A 21-year-old man is in custody in connection with the triple shooting. Police say Jordan Aekins, fled the scene in the Winchester Park Apartments on foot and was arrested in a nearby marshy area a short time later. He has been charged with two counts of murder, Latta said.
It’s unclear if Aekins, who is apparently homeless, has an attorney who can comment on the charges.
There was no apparent motive for the shootings of JoJo Holloway, 17; Brent Black, 31, and Melisa Mora, 30, at an apartment on Alwood Lane just before 2:30 p.m.
Holloway was pronounced dead at the scene while Black died later at Grant Medical Center and Mora was expected to survive her wounds to the upper body, Latta said.
Just before 3:15 p.m., police were called to the area of N. Cassady Avenue and Agler Road to investigate multiple reports of a vehicle that had crashed into some residential buildings.
Abdisalam Mohamud, 25, was found in the vehicle and taken to Grant Medical Center where Latta says he died a short time later.
Nuradin Abdi Ali, 25, who was in the vehicle with Mohamud, fled the scene after the crash but returned and was taken to the hospital and treated for a gunshot wound, Latta said.
The initial investigation indicated that the two men were involved in a fight in a parking lot at the intersection of Agler Road and Citygate Drive, about one block east of the crash site, where they were shot and that they tried to drive away, Latta said.
Latta says there is no known motive or suspects and the case remains under investigation.
Anyone with any information about the incident is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.