COLUMBUS – The deaths of four people in a span of less than nine hours raised the total number of homicides in Columbus in 2021 to 153, the second-highest total for a single year in the city’s history with 3 ½ months remaining on the calendar.
Four more murders happened between Thursday afternoon and midnight, two of them possibly targeting homeless men.
#150 – 3:11p.m.: Quinten Fuller, 24, was found in the 1900 Block of N 4th Street suffering from a gunshot wound. He died at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center at 4:17pm.
An arrest warrant has been filed for Kaliaf Ivory, 26, in connection with Fuller’s death.
The incident prompted a neighborhood safety warning by Ohio State University safety officials.
#151 – 5:42 p.m.: Bryan Persang, 24, was found shot in the passenger seat of a silver Honda Fit in the area of Norton Road and Floral Circle South on the Far West Side. He died later at a hospital.
#152 – 10:54 p.m.: Officers found a man suffering from an apparent gunshot wound in the 600 block of Gilbert Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The circumstances that lead to this shooting are still under investigation.
#153 – 11:43 p.m.: Officers dispatched to the area of E. Main Street and S. Nelson Road on the East Side found a man lying in the intersection, suffering from gunshot wounds.
UPDATE 9/20/21 7:49 a.m.: The victim in this shooting has been identified as Travis Knisely, 23. UPDATE: 9/23/21 6:42 a.m.: Police say Xavier Wilks, 29, has been arrested on a murder charge in connection with this incident.
Officers performed CPR until Columbus paramedics transported the man, whose name was not released, to an area hospital where he died.
According to media reports, the victims in the shootings on Gilbert Street and at Main and Nelson, as well as the shooting of a 47-year-old man outside a store in the 1500 block of E. Main Street at 10:35 p.m., were men who may have been targeted because they were homeless but there was no official confirmation from police
Anyone with information regarding these incidents is asked to call Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).