Columbus police identify suspect in fatal SE Side shooting and are investigating burned body

Holly Zachariah, The Columbus Dispatch
·2 min read
Columbus police say a man was shot to death Sunday afternoon inside a house on the 6700 block of Alexdon Court on the city's Southeast Side. The death was the city's record 189th homicide of 2021
Columbus police say a man was shot to death Sunday afternoon inside a house on the 6700 block of Alexdon Court on the city's Southeast Side. The death was the city's record 189th homicide of 2021

Columbus police homicide detectives have filed a murder charge against a 20-year-old man for a fatal shooting Sunday afternoon inside a house on the Southeast Side.

Detectives also revealed Monday that they are investigating the discovery of a burned body last Wednesday as the city's 190th homicide of 2021.

Police issued an arrest warrant Monday for Avonte M. Sanford, whose address on Gemstar Road is a couple blocks from the scene where 19-year-old Anthon M. Saunders Jr. was killed on the 6700 block of Alexdon Court in the Independence Village residential development.

Detectives said in a release Sunday that Saunders was with a group of men Sunday afternoon when the shooting occurred.

Two witnesses later told police they saw Sanford fire one shot into Saunders' chest and flee the house, a Columbus homicide detective wrote in an affidavit filed Monday with the arrest warrant documents. The motive for the shooting remained unclear.

The shooting was reported at 1:46 p.m. in the large residential development, located south of Tussing Road and east of Gender Road. Saunders had also lived in the same residential development, about a half-mile or 10-minute walk away.

Here's a map showing where homicides have occurred in Columbus over the last five years

Columbus Fire medics pronounced Saunders dead inside the home at 2 p.m. His death is the 189th homicide in Columbus in 2021.

More: Two men fatally shot about 20 minutes apart Friday night in separate Columbus homicides

Homicide investigators also reported Monday that a burned body found beneath an Interstate 670 overpass near the 500 block of Edgar Waldo Way had been declared a homicide Sunday by the Franklin County Coroner's office.

The death is the 190th homicide in Columbus in this record year of killing, with more than two weeks remaining.

Police officers, homicide detectives and Division of Fire arson investigators responded to the scene last Wednesday and found a person burnt beyond recognition. The person was transported to the coroner's office, which determined the victim was a male and the death was a homicide. Detectives had no further information or suspect.

Anyone with information regarding any of these incidents is asked to call the Columbus police Homicide Unit at (614) 645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at (614) 461-TIPS (8477).

Dispatch reporter John Futty contributed to this report.

hzachariah@dispatch.com

@hollyzachariah

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Sunday shooting on Columbus' Southeast Side is latest homicide