When shots rang out near the intersection of Fifth Street South and 14th Avenue Thursday, neighborhood residents were suddenly faced with the possibility of stray bullets entering their homes and striking them or their loved ones.
“I hit the floor,” said one Fifth Street resident who did not want to give her name.
She was one of several bystanders lining the street after Columbus Police Department officers arrived, put up caution tape and began their investigation into yet another shooting that’s part of a recent string of increased criminal activity in the area. CPD Capt. Fred Shelton told The Dispatch Friday that it is one of several neighborhoods in Columbus that have recently seen such an increase.
Witnesses told police that about 1 p.m. on Thursday, three black men dressed in red chased and shot at another black man running toward Friendship Cemetery. The man may have been shot in the thigh, Shelton said, but police have been unable to confirm if the victim was hit. He has not come forward.
The alleged shooters, meanwhile, got into a white Chevy Impala driven by a black woman, and the vehicle drove away in an unknown direction. When police arrived at the scene all that remained were remnants of the activity: Multiple bullet holes had pierced a vehicle and a house. As of Saturday, the suspects still had not been located, Shelton said.
Another neighbor, who also wished to remain anonymous, said he saw a man running on the street holding something in his hand that may have been a gun.
He was one of several neighbors who said the neighborhood, which has a large population of elderly residents, used to be a safe place.
“You could leave your door open,” he said.
Now his doors remain locked.
What can be done
Shelton told The Dispatch he has promised to add more officers to weekend patrols to the area, as well as around the Princess Theater and near East Columbus apartment complexes where multiple armed robberies have occurred in the last few weeks.
About a dozen people who live and work in the area where Thursday’s shooting occurred all said the same thing: The neighborhood used to be a fairly quiet, safe place and that within the last year more incidents like this one have occurred. They all wished to remain anonymous for varying reasons; one woman said she did not want others to know where she could be found.
“Always on that street,” said one Sixth Street resident pointing toward Fifth Street.
“I want to be able to sit out on my porch,” she said.
She said that she had never witnessed any shootings, but she heard many — usually at night. She only knows of one or two daylight shootings, including Thursday’s.
“I don’t know what can be done about it,” she said.
Changes in security
Rev. James A. Boyd is the pastor of the Zion Gate M.B. Church. The church, located on Fifth Street, is in the heart of the neighborhood in which Thursday’s shooting happened.
Boyd also said the issues plaguing Southside are a recent occurrence. He doesn’t believe the troubles stem from people who live in the neighborhood.
The Southside and Northside communities used to be separated, Boyd said, and Southside was “under control.”
“I may be wrong, but I think you’ve got a migration from the Northside to the Southside, and you have the Northside coming over here,” Boyd said. “That’s where the drugs and gang thing started. Four or five years ago, there was a shooting down on Fifth (Street). Those guys were not from Southside. And I’m almost certain if you find these guys who did (Thursday’s) shooting, they’re not from Southside.”
Whatever the cause, the violence is creating fear in the neighborhood, he said. While it hasn’t reached the point of panic, Boyd added it’s had an effect on his congregation.
The church’s older members don’t come to the nighttime services anymore because they are afraid, Boyd said, and the church has hired security.
“There was a time we didn’t need security,” he said. “We’ve gone to security now during our services. That’s another change.”
Still, Boyd said the church has only had one incident that directly impacted them: Someone broke into a car during a Wednesday night service about two years ago.
‘No sense of hope’
Boyd said it’s hard to know how to solve the area’s crime problems.
“When there’s no sense of hope, people actually are irresponsible,” Boyd said, adding a new police chief or more patrols may not be enough to curb the issue. “I think these guys feel like they don’t have anything to live for. They go to jail smiling. They get slapped on the hand and get out. It’s a door in and a door out.”
Boyd also said he’s uncertain if anything can be done on a broad scale to stop the mostly young men who are causing trouble in the community.
“I don’t think we can save that generation,” he said. “But it’s incumbent on us, as the church, to save the (generation) that’s coming.”
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