COLUMBUS – Three more homicides added Wednesday to the record-high tally in Columbus included a 17-year-old boy and a man who died more than two weeks after he was shot.
Eight homicides in Columbus in the past six days, plus the death of the victim of the earlier shooting, brought the murder toll for the year to 163, police said
Charges against Henry Borges, 36, were upgraded to murder after Ricky Rittenberry, 60, died Wednesday morning from injuries he suffered in a Dec. 1 shooting on Racine Avenue on the Hilltop, Sgt. Eric Pilya of the Homicide Unit said.
The teenager died at St. Ann’s Hospital late Wednesday night after a double shooting on the Northeast Side.
Patrol Officers dispatched to the area of Deewood Loop and Deewood Drive in the Bayberry Place townhome complex at 9:28 p.m. on a report of shots being fired located what they believed was the scene of the incident in the rear of 6193 Deewood Loop West, Sgt. David Shimberg of the Homicide Unit said.
Investigators learned that the 17-year-old and an 18-year-old man had transported themselves from the scene to the hospital where Shimberg says the younger victim died at 10:31 p.m., the 163rd homicide of the year.
The second victim, Deacon Smith, was transported to Mt. Carmel East Hospital where he is expected to recover.
Shimberg says the motive behind the incident is unclear.
The incident is still under investigation and anyone with information is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).
A 24-year-old man was killed in a double shooting at an East Side high-rise complex that chased residents and staff into the early-morning cold just after midnight Wednesday.
A murder charges was filed again Stevie Whitson Jr., 44, in connection with the shooting at Skyview Towers, 525 Sawyer Boulevard, police said.
Officers responding to a report of a man being shot at 12:07 a.m. found the victim, whose name has not been released, dead at the scene. The second victim, a 26-year-old man whose name has also been withheld, was treated at an area hospital and expected to recover.