COLUMBUS – A woman was shot and a man was stabbed during an early-morning mini-crime wave that targeted OSU campus-area pizza restaurants.
Police say a woman riding with a pizza deliverer was hit in the back by gunfire during a delivery at what turned out to be a vacant home blocks from the campus and a man was cut by a knife-wielding holdup man in one of three separate robberies near a Buckeye Pizza parlor.
At approximately 12:57 a.m., Randall Sturtz, 28, tried to deliver a pizza to 979 E. 14th Avenue but got no answer at the front door, Assault Unit investigators said. As he returned to his vehicle, he told police two men appeared from the side of a house across the street and fired several shots at him.
Police say shots hit Heather Newsome, 25, who was sitting in the front seat of his vehicle, and she was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
Earlier this year, a pizza deliveryman sent to a vacant address died after being robbed and shot and crashing in the southeast suburbs. Three people were charged in that case.
About an hour later, officers and EMT’s responding to a reported stabbing at 1584 Summit Street discovered that two separate robberies occurred at knife point at the Buckeye Pizza/Marathon at that address and a third holdup not far away, according to Robbery Unit detectives.
The first robbery occurred in the parking lot and involved two male OSU students. The suspects — described as male black, between 18 and 25 years of age, both with long dreadlocks — then held up three employees and a customer inside the business.
A third robbery happened just east of the store, in front of 235 Chittenden Avenue the victims were held at knife point by the same suspects and one of the victims suffered a cut on the hand. He was treated at The OSU Wexner Medical Center, police said.
Anyone with any information on either incident is asked to call the Columbus Police Assault Unit at 614-645-4373, the Robbery Unit at 614-645-4665 or Crime Stoppers at 614-645-4881.