COLUMBUS, Ohio – A 13-year-old girl, who was shot along with her sister inside a North Side home, was one of three people murdered in Columbus over the weekend.
The other victims include a woman killed during a violent argument and a man shot on a West Side street.
The teen was killed in a shooting on Saturday night that also left her 15-year-old sister injured in what Sgt. Jeffrey Strayer of the Homicide Unit termed a “sneak attack.”
He told The Columbus Dispatch the assault was “meaningful, purposeful and vicious.”
Investigators say someone stood outside a home at 467 E. 2nd Avenue shortly after 10:00 p.m. and fired multiple shots through a side window, hitting the two girls, who were inside the home. The girls were taken to a hospital but the younger victim died at 11:42 p.m., Strayer said.
Police did not release the names of the victims.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Crime Stoppers at 614-645-TIPS.
Just before 4:15 Sunday morning, Strayer says Columbus police were contacted by police in Hilliard and asked to check on the well-being of Ellen Clarke. The Hilliard authorities said a man named Vincent Salamony had told them he had been involved in a violent altercation with Clarke earlier.
Columbus Police Officers arrived and found Clarke inside an apartment on Sellls Avenue, on the Northwest Side, severely injured and unresponsive, Strayer said.
Clarke, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene and Strayer says Salamony, 24, was charged with murder.
At 1:25 p.m. Sunday, officers and medics responding to a reported shooting found two men suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot of the United Dairy Farmers at 3535 Clime Road, Sgt. Dave Sicilian of the Homicide Unit said.
Raheem Dearmond, 22, was found inside a vehicle that had stopped just outside of the front doors of the store, Sicilian said. Toure Benton, 25, was leaning on a wall just outside of the front doors.
Sicilian says officers determined that Dearmond and Toure had been shot in the parking at 1425 Demorest Drive by two male black suspects seen running westbound as Toure drove to the store to get help.
Dearmond was pronounced dead at the scene while Toure was listed in critical but stable condition at Mount Carmel West, Sicilian said.
There have now been 38 homicides in Columbus this year, police said.