Authorities investigating homicides on city's NE Side and at apartments in Truro Township
Fatal shootings early Friday near a gas station on Columbus' Northeast Side and Thursday evening in Truro Township have left two 21-year-old men dead, authorities say.
Columbus police are investigating after a 21-year-old man was shot and killed near a gas station on the Northeast Side.
Around 1:20 a.m. Friday, officers were called to the Speedway gas station at 2875 Stelzer Road, on a report of a shooting.
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Officers found 21-year-old Zemyre Abraham inside a vehicle that was parked along the curb on Stelzer Road. Abraham was rushed to an area hospital, but he died from his injuries at 2:03 a.m. Friday.
Detectives are investigating whether an argument may have preceded the shooting, but no suspects have been identified by homicide detectives investigating the fatal shooting.
Abraham's death was one of at least four shootings to occur within a 12-hour period Thursday into Friday in the city. Thus far, none of the other shootings has led to a fatality.
Sheriff's office investigating homicide in Truro Township
The Franklin County Sheriff's office is investigating a fatal shooting that occurred Thursday evening near the intersection of Noe Bixby and Chatterton roads in Truro Township.
Deputies received multiple 911 calls around 7:30 p.m. about shots being fired in the area and responded, finding 21-year-old Christopher Roberts Jr., of the Southeast Side, lying on a stairwell landing at the Cross Key apartment complex. Roberts was rushed to Mount Carmel East hospital but died from his injuries.
Roberts' most recent address, according to court records, was in the Cross Key apartment complex.
According to the sheriff's office, the preliminary investigation shows Roberts was "ambushed and shot" at the rear of the nearby Thirsty Zebra drive-thru, located at 2960 Noe Bixby Road. Roberts then ran to the Cross Key apartments and collapsed.
At least four and possibly five suspects are believed to be involved, the sheriff's office said. The suspects fled in a maroon four-door Hyundai, possibly a 2009 Hyundai Sonata. Detectives are examining evidence collected at the scene, including video and shell casings.
Photographs taken from the video show at least one of the suspects wearing a mask.
No suspects have been publicly identified as of Friday afternoon. Anyone with information on their identities is asked to call detectives at 614-645-3351.
The area where the shooting occurred is in a small portion of Truro Township around the intersection of Chatterton Road and Noe-Bixby Road that had not been annexed into Columbus in southeast Franklin County.
It is just across Chatterton Road from the site of a drive-by shooting in April 2021 in which a woman was fatally shot while driving and 5 others were injured. The incident occurred during a memorial event at a strip mall for a homicide victim killed one year earlier in the same location during a drug transaction gone bad.
The woman driving by lived in the Cross Key apartments and had just left the apartment complex to pick up a child when she apparently got caught in the crossfire of the drive-by shooter and was fatally struck, causing her car to leave Chatterton Road and crash into vehicles in the parking lot outside one of the other buildings in the Cross Key complex.
Anyone with information about either of the two latest homicides or the 2021 incident is asked to call Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS. All calls to Crime Stoppers are anonymous.
Dispatch reporter Jessica Orozco contributed to this story.
bbruner@dispatch.com
@bethany_bruner
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Authorities probe fatal shootings on NE Side and in Truro Township
