Columbus police arrest 18-year-old man suspected in shooting death of teenage girl
An 18-year-old Far West Side man has been arrested and charged with murder after Columbus police identified him as the suspect in the shooting death of a teenage girl on Monday.
Homicide detectives investigating the death of 15-year-old Maria Fernanda Guerra-Sandoval say that Kevin Jesus-Lopez was the only other person with her when she was killed, according to a probable cause affidavit in Franklin County Municipal Court. Though Jesus-Lopez claimed to detectives that the girl shot herself, detectives said in the affidavit that the evidence at the scene appeared to indicate that the fatal wounds were not self-inflicted.
Neighbors called 911 around 5:30 p.m. Monday to report seeing an unresponsive female outside a home on the 4700 block of Sullivant Avenue on Columbus' Far West Side. Guerra-Sandoval was found unresponsive, and medics with the Columbus Division of Fire pronounced the girl dead at the scene.
Jesus-Lopez, whose listed address is about a half-mile away from the home where Guerra-Sandoval was found, made his first court appearance Saturday morning, according to the online court docket.
Anyone with information can call the Columbus police homicide unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.
Eric Lagatta is a reporter at The Columbus Dispatch covering public safety, with a focus on in-depth coverage of social justice issues and crime trends.
elagatta@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man arrested, charged with murder of 15-year-old girl
