COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two double-homicides within 12 hours prompted Columbus police to once again call for help from the community to help solve cases.
"I've never seen anything like this," said Deputy Chief Michael Woods, who has worked for the division for 32 years. "Almost daily a serious shooting."
The city has seen a record 173 homicides in 2020. The previous record was 143 in 2017.
"It's been a very difficult year," Woods said during a Tuesday press conference outside police headquarters Downtown.
Two people died and another is in critical condition after reports of a stabbing around 5 a.m. Tuesday at apartments in the Northland area.
That came less than 12 hours after shooting during a gunfight killed two around 6 p.m. Monday in the parking lot of an Exxon station on East Livingston Avenue.
One of the victims was Finesse Robinson, 20. A 17-year-old male victim has not been identified.
Police and city officials, including Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, have held several similar news conferences throughout this violent year.
Columbus police have been fired upon as well. Around 3:05 Tuesday morning, someone fired toward officers completing a report while parked at the entrance of the First Church of God in the 3400 block of Refugee Road on the Southeast Side. The marquee sign for the church was struck.
That followed a Dec. 22 incident on the Northeast Side when police were fired upon while responding to a call of shots fired.
Asked about hostility toward police in the city, feelings exacerbated after Columbus police Officer Adam Coy shot and killed Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man, in a Northwest Side garage Dec. 22, Woods said, "We are working hard every day to improve community relations. We will continue to do that."
Ned Pettus, Columbus' public safety director, fired Coy on Monday.
Woods said that to date there also have been 1,286 felonious assaults reported in Columbus in 2020, compared to 757 in 2019, 749 in 2018 and 794 in 2017. Those can range from shootings to stabbings to beatings.
Asked why there is so much violence this year — from strains from the COVID-19 pandemic, to the feeling that people can get away with it, to sheer anger — Woods said all them could be reasons. He also said authorities have put fewer people in jail during the pandemic.
As for homicides in 2021, Woods said, "My hope is it will slow down, take a turn."
Anyone with information regarding homicides is asked to call the Columbus police homicide unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.
