COLUMBUS —A man was wounded in the buttocks by a stray bullet in East Columbus on Friday evening.
At about 6:45 p.m., Columbus Police Department officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 500 block of Catalpa Street. When officers arrived on the scene, they saw that a residence had been struck by gunfire twice, according to a CPD press release.
Soon after, Baptist Memorial-Golden Triangle Hospital called Lowndes County E911 and told them that they’d just received a gunshot victim who said that he’d been shot in East Columbus.
The release said the gunfire was the result of a dispute on Facebook escalating into violence.
The man who was shot was not involved in the dispute but just happened to be driving in the area when he was struck.
CPD Chief Joseph Daughtry said officers processed the vehicle and found multiple bullet holes through the driver’s side door of the car. He said the driver may have leaned forward when he heard gunshots, which would have put his buttocks in line with the shots.
“This is why we are so aggressively increasing patrol around the city because incidents like this one are senseless,” Daughtry said.
No arrests have been made yet, Daughtry said.
Originally, the release said the victim was struck in the lower abdomen. But in a correction on Saturday, Public Information Officer Johannah Owusu said he was struck in the buttocks.
Daughtry said the victim has since been treated and released from the hospital.
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