Posted on 05/25/2008 5:30:50 PM PDT by Comparative Advantage
Panicked South Linden residents flooded 911 with phone calls when the bullets started flying on May 18 near E. 18th and Cleveland avenues.
"There was multiple people with guns," one man told an operator as a woman screamed in the background. "They were running while they were shooting at each other."
"They're running through my yard, and I have a baby!" another woman said.
Police swarmed to the neighborhood and took stock of the damage.
Several houses had been hit by gunfire. Residents said that as many as two dozen shots had been fired, and detectives collected spent rounds from several guns. They found an AK-47 rifle behind a tree.
And they found Devon Rheubottom, 18, dead in an alley.
The gunbattle was the latest flash in what Columbus police say is a surge in gang violence.
"We do know that there were numerous participants, and they were all gang members," said Sgt. Eric Pilya of the homicide squad. "There was more than one gun in play out there."
Since April 7, Columbus police have investigated four homicides and several nonfatal shootings that appear to have at least some gang connections. Police say they are seeing more retaliatory violence among rival gangs.
In the first of the homicides, detectives think stray bullets from a drive-by shooting involving gang members killed 18-year-old Tiana Goins, an innocent bystander at Cleveland and Cordell avenues.
"It's getting out of control," said Cmdr. Jeffrey Blackwell of the Strategic Response Bureau.
The unrest continued Friday afternoon at Rheubottom's funeral. When a fight broke out inside the funeral home during visitation, police cleared the J. Martin Smith Mortuary on Cleveland Avenue. The funeral director canceled the services, moving them to the graveside.
(Excerpt) Read more at dispatch.com ...
I hate to do this, but...Calling Captain Obvious..
Their terroristic actions are comparable to al-Qaida. When will this country treat these thugs as such?
s this Columbus, Ohio?
Canada.
I would like to know what level of gang violence/murder/mayhem would be of an “under control” level according to Columbus PD...
I think Barack Hussein Obama calls them Ditto Heads.
One of the victims-Eito Moon, was from our city, just moved to Columbus recently. His dad, Eito Moon Sr. has been in prison since he was born. I don’t know if he ever even saw Jr.
Yes...Columbus, Ohio.
Thanks for the correction - there’s been much talk of gang problems in Canada lately that I just assumed.
What's the problem. It looks like the police are on the job doing what they're supposed to.
sarcasm disclaimer
Ohio ping
This is what 4+ decades of liberalism and pandering has brought. The ghetto is still the ghetto, probably worse, and now the suburbs have been infected. Very few places are safe anymore and it’s only going to get worse.
Wait until the smoke clears, then shoot the survivors.
Would that be considered "shooting over a baited field"?
That’s nothing..After all of the toilets were stolen from the Columbus Police Headquarters.....police said “we have nothing to go on”!
Did the Buckeyes lose another game? I thought football started in September.
What a shame. Columbus used to be a beautiful city.
And a bare minimum of 90% of the thugs who participated in this particular round of violence — like very other round — have previously been convicted of crimes, or let off the hook despite sufficient evidence to convict time, and let loose again.
Y’know, somebody oughtta tell those gangs that this kind of activity is illegal.
LMAO...and "Thank You" for your service...
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