Two men charged with attempted murder after Short North assault caught on video
UPDATE: Man left in coma by sucker-punch assault on Labor Day outside Short North bar has died
Columbus police were seeking the public's help to locate two men accused of assaulting a man Sept. 5 outside a bar on North High Street in the Short North, leaving him in a coma and with injuries they say he is not likely to survive.
Chrystian Foster, 32, and Dwayne Cummings, 28, have both been charged in warrants with attempted murder after police allege they assaulted Gregory Coleman Jr., 37, and left him lying in the street, near death, police said. Both men were still at-large as of mid-afternoon Wednesday.
Around 2 a.m. on Sept. 5, Coleman was standing and eating on the sidewalk while talking to some women in front of the Julep Bar at 1014 North High St. when a man, whom police identified as Foster, came up to him and squared up with him to fight, according to court documents.
Coleman dropped his food and prepared to fight Foster. Foster appears to move forward toward Coleman, who backs up at first with his fists up. Coleman then fakes a right toward Foster, who stumbles backward into a parked vehicle.
A graphic video taken by a witness and shared by Columbus police on Monday shows Cummings at that moment coming up behind Coleman, who has dropped his fists, and sucker punching him in the face. Coleman falls backwards, striking his head on the street with his feet and calves still on the curb.
After Coleman falls to the ground, Foster stands over Coleman and slaps him at least twice before walking away. Cummings then stands over Coleman and slaps him at least once.
Police said that when they pulled up on the scene in the Short North, a few people were standing around, taking pictures and videos of the victim, but officers were unable to locate any witnesses to the incident.
Coleman was transported to the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in critical condition with skull fractures and brain bleeding. According to court records, Coleman remains in a coma and on a ventilator, and police said it is not clear that he would survive his injuries.
Homicide Unit Det. Anthony Johnson said that if Coleman does not survive or his family chooses to end life support for the victim, the charges against Foster and Cummings will be upgraded to homicide.
Johnson also said that the suspects were identified thanks to the circulation of videos of the assault on social media. Court documents show that the incident was filmed by several people and posted to social media.
Short North scene of several violent incidents in recent years
The Sept. 5 incident is the latest in a trend of violent crimes in the Short North. In June, five people were injured in two separate shootings that occurred only weeks from each other. In February, a bullet from an apparent drive-by shooting hit a patron and bystander at a High Street tavern in Old North, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
In 2021, there were several shootings in the Short North neighborhood, including a shooting around 4 a.m. July 18 during a fight outside the SeeSaw Kitchen and Bar, 906 N. High St. In that incident, police said three people were injured, including two people who were fighting when they exchanged gunfire, injuring a third person caught in the crossfire.
@Colebehr_report
Cbehrens@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police charge two men in Short North assault caught on video.
