'That's so scary.' 1 dead, 1 injured in King-Lincoln Bronzeville shooting near daycare
Columbus police say one man was killed and another was injured in a shooting early Friday afternoon next to a daycare center filled with napping children in the King-Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood.
Police responded around 1:30 p.m. Friday to a report of a shooting, which happened at 18th Street and Mount Vernon Avenue.
Officers found Javon Tucker, 28, near the Atcheson PLace Lofts apartments in the 1000 block of Atcheson Street. He was taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where he later died. The second man, 31, was taken to a local hospital for treatment of a minor gunshot wound but is expected to recover.
Police placed 10 small cones to mark bullet shell casings at the corner of 18th Street and Mount Vernon Avenue, a few steps from the Children R Us Daycare, which was filled with kids during a nap time, an employee there said.
A sprawling crime scene had been marked off with police tape extending two blocks in each direction, the daycare marking the southern edge.
Tucker had run toward the Atcheson Place Lofts before falling.
The other male who was wounded continued north toward the 13-story Mount Vernon Plaza apartments, an independent living building for seniors, where two people were fatally shot outside last October.
"The victim (who survived) ran a great distance" from the scene of the shooting," said Detective Sgt. David Shimberg of the Columbus police Homicide Unit.
Police had a few witnesses the shooting, but they provided no description or motive.
"We're still trying to piece it all together," Shimberg said Friday.
Detectives were reviewing video surveilence footage inside a Mount Vernon Plaza office.
Other detectives slowly paced grassy areas outside townhomes looking for evidence and clues. Across the street, a steady parade of parents arrived to pick up their children at the daycare facility.
"When I heard about this, my heart just dropped," said a woman who declined to be named while picking up her 4-year-old twin girls. "That's just so scary. So sad someone lost their life."
David Fluellen, founder of Urban Family Development Center, 1741 E Main St., was at his barber shop up the street when he heard about the shooting.
He approached Shimberg, asking how he might help.
"I grew up in this neighborhood, and I'm just trying to figure out ways to launch services, to help our community," Fluellen said.
"It starts with us," Fluellen said of residents. "We're a big part of the solution."
dnarciso@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 1 dead, 1 injured in King-Lincoln Bronzeville shooting near daycare
