Three people, including two young siblings, were gunned down in a shocking, unprovoked attack while sitting in a parked car, Ohio police said.
The three victims, identified by Columbus police as 22-year-old Charles Wade, 9-year-old Demitrius Wall’neal and his 6-year-old sister Londynn Wall’neal, were pronounced dead at the scene after cops responded to a report of shots fired at about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Two armed suspects approached the trio’s car outside the Winchester Lakes Apartments and opened fire “without any warning or provocation,” Columbus police said in a statement.
Both suspects then hopped into a nearby car driven by a third person, who drove off. No arrests had been made of as early Wednesday, Columbus police told The Post.
“We are still actively looking,” said Sgt. James Fuqua of the suspects who had a “blatant” disregard for human life. “I get tired of going out publicly and talking about senseless violent crimes, especially homicides. It has to stop.”
Wade was not the biological father of the young children, but was known to them and their mother, Fuqua said.
No description of the suspects’ car was immediately available. Investigators said at least two shooters opened fire into the car, which was left riddled with bullet holes, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
Columbus police Assistant Chief LaShanna Potts spoke to reporters at a press conference outside the apartment complex as a woman wailed in the background, the newspaper reported.
“They are babies,” Potts said of the young victims. “They deserve to be here. This mother is grieving, this family is devastated … There is nothing I can say to this family that will bring them closure.”
Potts vowed cops would track down the “monsters” responsible for the triple homicide.
“We have two young kids who have been murdered,” Potts said. “This is unacceptable. I am pissed. It’s getting tiresome. This gun violence has got to stop.”
The deadly shootings raised the city’s homicide count to 186, police said. That’s a single-year record with more than three weeks remaining in 2021, the Dispatch reported.
Both Demitrius and Londynn Wall’neal were students in Canal Winchester Local Schools, the newspaper reported, citing a letter sent by school officials to parents.
Fuqua, meanwhile, echoed Potts’ take in calling for an end to the record number of homicides in Columbus.
“It’s senseless,” he said. “I’m pissed as well.”
