COLUMBUS – A long-simmering feud between neighbors in a South Side mobile home park boiled over into violence Monday afternoon, leaving two men dead in what police say was a murder-suicide.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of the victim’ name.
Investigators say Ronald Payne shot David Sellars II to death outside Payne’s Niles Drive home just before 4:27 p.m., then drove to a nearby grocery store and took his own life.
Detectives believe the shooting was the result of a long-term dispute between the two neighbors.
Officers responding to the shooting on Niles Drive found Sellers, 30, lying on the grass with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Columbus paramedics.
A short time later, dispatchers received a 911 call from Payne, 74, who said that he had just shot his neighbor and wanted to hurt himself. Officers found him parked behind the Kroger a few blocks away on S. High Street with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sellars is the 30th homicide victim in Columbus this year.