COLUMBUS, Ohio – Authorities say the suspected ringleader of a gang with two-decade-old roots in Columbus opened fire on them before they shot him to death at a South Side apartment Tuesday morning.
Jermonte Fletcher was killed during a shoot-out with members of a fugitive task force trying to arrest him.
Fletcher, 33, had been a fugitive for more than a year following his indictment in December 2013 on multiple charges of drug dealing and illegal weapons possession before authorities were tipped to his whereabouts on Buffalo Court in the Southpoint Village Apartments, according to Columbus Division of Police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner.
An officer was injured and hospitalized in stable condition, Weiner said.
Prosecutors say Fletcher was one of the leaders of the Short North Posse, which, dating back to the 1990s, distributed drugs including crack cocaine throughout Ohio and in other states, and recruited individuals from elsewhere to join its operations
He was one of 22 people charged in a 78-count indictment detailing conspiracy, drug trafficking, gun crimes and violence in the aid of racketeering and was facing a minimum of 115 years in prison, according to a statement from Carter Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
Weiner says agents of the Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Task Force went to two apartments around 8:17 a.m. before a woman at the second apartment, at 265 Buffalo Court, confirmed that Fletcher was inside.
Agents made their way into the apartment and ordered Fletcher to surrender but Fletcher fired multiple rounds at the agents who returned fire, killing him, Weiner said.
Weiner said Columbus police officer Keith Kise and Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers Nicholas Melo and Paul Shore were identified as the agents who fired the shots. A weapon Weiner described as a “sub-machine pistol” was found at the scene.
A task force agent was taken to Grant Medical Center in stable condition and will undergo surgery on his leg for injuries sustained while he rescued an eight-year-old boy from inside the apartment.
The shooting remains under investigation, Weiner said.