COLUMBUS – After a violent weekend in Columbus, police officials promised a greater presence on city streets and in parks.
“We got more officers that we’re trying to put on the street, we’re looking to restructure the organization, and so as you move forward in 2022, you’re going to see more boots to the ground,” said First Assistant Chief LaShanna Potts, of the Division of Police, during a media briefing Monday afternoon.
The press conference was called after five people were killed in shootings between Friday morning and Monday morning, bringing the total number of homicides in Columbus this year to 36. By this time in 2021, when the city saw a record number of homicides, 64 homicides had occurred, police said.
Two fatal shootings occurred within a few hours of each other in city parks on Saturday.
“We knew that, as the weather gets warmer, citizens are going to be out. What we’re doing is, proactively we have officers checking in parks every hour,” Potts said.
Police say 91% of the homicides this year have been committed with guns and 63% of the cases have been solved.
Two men were killed in separate shootings on the East Side early Friday and early Monday morning on the Hilltop.
The most recent homicide was reported at 3:46 a.m. Monday when 31-year-old Sorenta Hylton was struck by gunshots fired into a home in the 1300 Block of Vida Court, on the Southwest Side, by an unknown suspect, Sgt. David Shimberg of the homicide unit said. Four other people in the home, including three children, were uninjured.
A 39-year-old man was shot in the arm while sitting in a parked vehicle nearby, Shimberg said.
This incident is still under investigation.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call the homicide unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).
A 17-year-old boy was in stable condition and recovering from his injuries after being shot by someone in a passing vehicle while the teen was walking in the area of E. Livingston Avenue and Fairwood Avenue at approximately 3:46 p.m. Monday, Shimberg said.
Division officials say the ranks of police officers are being thinned as veterans leave the force and new recruits are still being trained.
The city and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office are getting over $750,000 from the Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program, which was created to give local law enforcement tools to target offenders believed to be responsible for most violent crime in the state.
The $413,908 granted to the Columbus Division of Police and $337,850 to the sheriff’s office was among more than $3.7 million awarded to 21 local law enforcement agencies this week.