COLUMBUS – For two years in a row Columbus Ohio has beaten its own record for murder and three killings in the last few days most likely isn’t done for 2021.
On December 27, 2021, at 4:39am, officers were dispatched to the 1100 block of Shady Lane Dr. on an unknown complaint. Officers arrived at scene and found the victim suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. The victim, 22-year-old Preston Bell, was pronounced deceased at 4:45am. This would be the 199 murder of just this year topping last year’s 2020 record year of 179.
Columbus Police have made changes to help, but it seems to have gone in death ears. Homicide investigators were reassigned to work daytime hours on the department’s first shift as part of a pilot program, with teams on call to respond if needed at other times of the day.
The Columbus Division of Police partnered with researchers at the National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC) to study more than 100 homicides from a nine-month stretch in 2020.
What they found was Gang violence in 2020 was responsible for 36% of those slayings. Another high percentage was domestic violence.
