Columbus leaders met Monday with parents and relatives of children who attend a local daycare to discuss a shooting that occurred near the daycare Thursday, when a stray bullet entered the 23rd Street North facility.
Parents of children enrolled at Genesis Church Daycare expressed several concerns at the meeting, including the seeming increase in crime around Columbus, the easy access criminals have to firearms and the lack of lighting and police patrols around the daycare center itself.
The daycare’s owner and director, Curley Williams, opened the meeting — which Mayor Robert Smith, Interim Police Chief Fred Shelton and Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner attended — by explaining what happened Thursday from her perspective.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Williams heard what she thought were firecrackers outside the building. The children had been put down for naps, and the daycare lights were off. Williams called the police and put the daycare on lockdown, locking all the entrances and making sure the children were safe.
“The bullet entered my building,” Williams said. “I want to make it clear that there was no shooting on this campus, but the bullet did come into the building.”
Williams said she saw a young man running across a field and jumping over a fence.
When the police arrived, they found a bullet laying on nearby Oat Avenue, according to Shelton. Shelton had previously told The Dispatch that neighbors in the area reported hearing shots and a daycare employee had spotted three young men, two of them chasing another. Once police ensured the men were no longer in the area, the daycare was no longer on lockdown.
Williams said it was not until after the children had been picked up by parents and caregivers that another of the daycare employees noticed a hole in the wall of the room where the 2-year-olds had been napping. Thinking the hole may have been made by a bullet, Williams called authorities to come search the room. Police found a bullet in a chair in the room. Williams said it was determined the bullet came through a window, bounced off the wall and landed on the chair.
Williams said CPD has increased patrols in the area, per her request, since the shooting.
Shelton also spoke at the meeting, promising to increase patrols and stressing the importance of people giving the police information about crimes and suspicious people in their neighborhoods. If people do not want to go to the police or give their names, they should call Golden Triangle Crimestoppers, he said.
“Somebody knew the young men who were shooting,” he said.
Attendees at the meeting expressed frustration at how easy it is for citizens to get guns. Shelton pointed out that it’s legal for most people to carry guns, but added that no one under 21 can legally carry a gun. Children on the streets during the school day or who have guns should be reported to the police, Shelton said.
Several parents also pointed out to Smith that the drop-off area of the daycare is not well lit, especially early in the day when parents are leaving their children at the center. Smith promised to look at the lights around the building and work on getting Columbus Light & Water to improve lighting in the area.
Though several parents said Williams should have called them as soon as the daycare went on lockdown, they showed support for Williams and the daycare and said they would keep their children in the center despite their worries.
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