COLUMBUS – Two men were killed in separate shooting incidents Tuesday as Columbus police have recorded five homicides in the first week of 2020.
UPDATE 1/9/20: This story has been edited to include data released by the Columbus Division of Police
At approximately 5:35 p.m., officers were called to an apartment complex in the 1700 block of Burstock Court, on the Southeast Side, on a report of gunfire in the parking lot found Curtis Anthony Duff II, 22, lying on the ground behind one of the buildings, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Sgt. Jeffrey Strayer of the Homicide Unit says Duff was pronounced dead at the scene.
The initial investigation indicated that multiple gunshots had been fired by multiple individuals, striking several buildings and vehicles as well as the victim, Strayer said. The circumstances surrounding the gunfire is still under investigation.
At 10:00 p.m. Homicide Unit Sgt. David Shimberg says Christopher Mathew Kirby, 38, was found lying in the driveway of a home in the 1100 block of Smith Road, on the South Side, by officers responding to a report of gunshots.
Kirby was pronounced dead at the scene.
Shimberg says investigators found that multiple shots had been fired in the area and vehicles were struck in the exchange of gunfire during which Kirby was also killed. Investigators are still attempting to determine the motive for the incident.
Anyone with information regarding these incidents are asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.
The five murders investigated in the first week of the year is more than the three recorded during the first week of last year, which saw 104 homicides, but lower than the six murders investigated during the first seven days of 2018 or 2016, according to statistics posted on the Columbus Division of Police Twitter account at the request of media outlets. In 2017, the city saw a record 143 homicides but only three of those were committed during the first week of the year.
Meanwhile, police have filed charges against a 36-year-old man in connection with the deadly shooting of a man outside a South Side sports bar early Saturday.
An arrest warrant has been filed for Troy Capers II on a murder charge stemming from the death of Joseph Fisher, Shimberg said.
Police say Capers had been involved in a minor altercation with patrons of the T.K.’s Sports Bar on Parsons Avenue and left the area but returned armed with a handgun and shot Fisher, who died later at a hospital.
Capers is to be considered armed and dangerous, Shimberg said.
Anyone with any information concerning his whereabouts is asked to call Columbus police at 614-645-4545.