COLUMBUS, Ohio — At least 200 people have been killed within Columbus in a single year for the first time in the city's history, marking another bleak milestone in a year in which a new homicide record had already been reached more than a month ago.
In a prepared news release, the Columbus Division of Police announced on Tuesday that the death of a Berwick man in March has officially been ruled as the city's 200th homicide of 2021 by the Franklin County Coroner's office.
Bobby N. Nesbitt, 60, died March 10 after he became unresponsive when a family member restrained him during an altercation at his Berwick home, according to police.
Columbus police who responded at 4:11 p.m. that day to Nesbitt's home on the 1600 block of Rose View Drive east of College Avenue/Route 33 found Nesbitt unresponsive at the scene. Columbus medics transported him to the Downtown OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where he died at 5:28 p.m.
During the investigation, police reported learning about an altercation taking place in which Nesbitt stabbed a family member with scissors. After the stabbing, the family member restrained Nesbitt, causing him to become unresponsive, police said.
An official cause of death was not specified in the police news release, but the Dispatch has requested the coroner's final autopsy report.
Columbus police have not filed any charges against anyone in Nesbitt's death, and have sent the case to the Franklin County Prosecutor's office for review as is routine for any homicide case regardless of the circumstances.
This year became the city's deadliest on record on Nov. 22 when police say a 23-year-old man was shot and killed by his girlfriend outside a West Side apartment. The man's death was the city's 176th homicide, marking the second consecutive year that a homicide record would be set in Columbus.
Since then, the killings have steadily raged.
Shortly after Nesbitt's death was announced as a homicide on Tuesday afternoon, another person was killed in Columbus, making for the 201st homicide.
Columbus police said a man was shot and killed after 5 p.m. Tuesday on the city's South Side in the 400 block of East Markison Avenue near the intersection of Parsons Avenue.
The victim, who has not been identified by police as of Wednesday morning, died around 5:30 p.m. at Grant Medical Center.
And around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, a 16-year-old girl was shot at a home on the 5400 block of Piper Ridge Drive on the city's Southeast Side. The girl was taken to Mount Carmel East Hospital where she died about an hour later.
Seven people have now been killed in the past week alone across Columbus, including a respected imam in the city's Somali and Muslim communities whose body was found Friday afternoon in a car parked on the North Side.
Also this week, a 22-year-old was shot to death Monday morning on the city's East Side.
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