Nearly 2 months after mass shooting outside Columbus hookah bar, no one has been charged
The mother of an 18-year-old killed in May during a mass shooting outside a Columbus hookah lounge says family and friends are devastated by his loss, and that she's frustrated by the lack of arrests in her son’s death.
Da'ondre Bullock, 18; Malachi Pee, 27, and Garcia Dixon Jr., 26, died in the shooting early May 18 near MIA Hookah Café on East Fifth Avenue. Three others suffered injuries in the shooting but survived.
Bullock's mother, Shondrea Kindle, said it was her son's first time ever visiting a club. She said she received a phone call in the middle of the night with people screaming and spent the night searching for her son using the location on his phone.
“He wasn’t a bad kid,” Kindle said. “That was his first time going out. He had just turned 18.”
His death continues to overwhelm family and friends with grief, Kindle said. Some of his friends have been living in her house as they try to cope with the loss.
Bullock loved basketball and went to school at Focus Learning Academy. He hoped to flip houses for a living, Kindle said. His girlfriend found out she was pregnant with his child a few days after the shooting.
“That's what these kids don't understand,” Kindle said. “When you kill that one person, you kill everybody in that family.”
MIA Hookah Café mass shooting kills 3, injuries 3
Police said they received a report of automatic gunfire outside the club and cars fleeing, and officers arrived to find a “very chaotic scene.” They interviewed several cooperative witnesses. A resident in the neighborhood told The Dispatch he heard gunshots followed by the sound of gunshots from an automatic weapon.
On May 28, Columbus police released photos of two people potentially connected to the shooting, but have yet to make an arrest.
Nicole Jaros, a Columbus Division of Police spokesperson, said the male in the photo was successfully identified and interviewed by detectives, but the department released no additional details about the investigation.
Kindle said she’s frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation into her son’s death. She still doesn’t know whether the shooters fired randomly or if they were targeting someone her son was with that night.
“Start taking people's children's lives seriously,” Kindle said. "Act like it's your family. …Take your job seriously.”
Second mass shooting rocked Columbus a month later
On June 23, another mass shooting took place. Ten people were wounded in a shooting at about 2:30 a.m. in the 1100 block of North High Street in the Short North.
Police took one person into custody.
Deangelo Fuller, 19, of Groveport, was charged with fleeing the scene of the shooting in a car after police saw a suspect get into the vehicle. Fuller reached speeds of 109 mph, evading police. He later turned himself in that night. Police have not said whether Fuller fired during the shooting.
Kindle said she’s disturbed by the shootings in Columbus. She blames a dismissive attitude about guns and death among teens and permissive gun laws, especially Ohio’s permitless carry law that went into effect June 13.
Kindle said she plans to move back to her native Tennessee.
“I don't have any plans on raising my grandbaby here in Columbus,” Kindle said. “I hate this place. This place is nothing but death and destruction. It’s like a black cloud over Columbus.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus MIA Hookah Cafe shooting: No arrests nearly 2 months later
