COLUMBUS – The city of Columbus is partnering with a national violence-prevention organization to address a deadly crime wave that has left at least 130 people dead in the city this year.
The National Network for Safe Communities will conduct a six-month analysis of who and what is driving serious violence in Columbus and the data will be used to prevent more violence. The group promotes intervention strategies to reduce violence, minimize arrests and incarcerations and improve police-community relations.
Its Group Violence Intervention strategy is based on the “Operation Ceasefire” program introduced in Boston in 1996, the brainchild of criminologist David Kennedy of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who is also assisting with the Columbus study, which will cost $80,000 and will begin in November, Department of Public Safety spokesman Glenn McEntyre said.
The announcement of the study comes amid a spate of violent crime that has left seven people dead in Columbus and Franklin County in less than 72 hours, including an elderly couple allegedly killed in their home during a robbery by a neighbor, and a shooting that left two small children injured.
Franklin County sheriff’s deputies found John Blanc, 77, and his 75-year-old girlfriend, Susan Castore, at their home on Carilla Lane in Prairie Township Sunday afternoon after someone called 911 and hung up at 3:20 p.m., Sheriff Dallas Baldwin said.
Blanc had suffered stab wounds to the body and Castore appeared to have been strangled, Baldwin said.
Kelly Dale Vokas, 40, was arrested while attempting to flee the scene is charged with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery, Baldwin said.
Detectives believe that Vokas knew the couple and went to their home to rob them.
The most recent homicide occurred early Tuesday morning on the West Side.
Columbus police say James Johnson II, 29, was shot in the parking lot of a Sunoco gas station at 2281 Sullivant Avenue just before 4:00 a.m. and drove himself to a United at 530 Hague Avenue where officers found him inside a Honda Element. He died later at Grant Medical Center, Sgt. Eric Pilya said.
The preliminary investigation indicated that two men and at least one other unknown suspect in a maroon and gold minivan had been involved with the shooting at the Sunoco station and had fled the scene, Pilya said.
This was the 131st homicide of 2020 in Columbus.
A 25-year-old man was killed in a double shooting at an East Side bar Monday night.
Officers dispatched to a shooting at Donerick’s Pub, 6935 E. Broad Street, at approximately 7:50 p.m. found the man and a woman suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, Sgt. David Shimberg of the Homicide Unit said.
UPDATE 10/21/20 6:54 a.m.: The victim in this shooting has been identified as Adrian Hardy, 25.
The man, whose name was being withheld until his relatives could be notified, was pronounced dead at the scene while 28-year-old Cheniqua Barton was transported to an area hospital where she was listed in guarded condition after undergoing surgery.
Investigators were still attempting to determine a motive for the shooting early Tuesday, Shimberg said.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).
Two children, ages 2 and 4, were injured when the SUV they were riding in was fired upon in Italian Village Monday, police said.
When officers responded to the area of 96 E. Russell Street at 3:20 p.m. on a report of multiple people being shot found a black Dodge Durango on its side with the two children outside of the vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds Det. David Younker of the Felony Assault Unit said were sustained while they were inside the vehicle.
The officers also found Dillon Minniefield, 28, who stated that he was driving the vehicle at the time it was shot at. Minniefield was also grazed by a bullet and was treated at scene, Younker said.
Nyquan Hall, 23 (pictured), was arrested and charged with felonious assault.
Police have identified the victim of a deadly shooting on the East Side Sunday as Loubna Laassadi, 25, shot inside a vehicle while riding with her boyfriend in the 800 block of E. Broad Street at 2:15 a.m. Sunday.
A woman died later Sunday morning in an apparent murder-suicide on the North Side.