COLUMBUS – Police have arrested a man they shot another man to death during a drug deal nearly a year ago.
Brian Reed, 49, was tracked down and arrested by the Columbus Police Community Response Team for several misdemeanors and later charged with the murder of Gary Copling at a Southeast Side bar on Dec. 20, 2017, said Sgt. Eric Pilya of the Homicide Unit.
Copling, 41, was murdered during a drug deal in the parking lot of the Dawghouse bar, 2031 Lockbourne Road and was found approximately a half block away, near the intersection of Studer and Reeb avenues, and died later at Grant Medical Center, the 135th homicide of 2017, which saw a record number of murders in Columbus, Pilya said.