COLUMBUS, Ohio — One person was pronounced dead at the scene Monday afternoon after a shooting in the 2200 block of Albert Avenue on Columbus’ Northeast Side, a few hundred feet from the Alrahma Mosque, according to Columbus police and fire officials.
Police received a report of the shooting at 2:11 p.m. on Monday, October 19, in the block east of Westerville Road (State Route 3), according to a Columbus police dispatcher. The caller reported that a group of boys were shooting outside the Alrahma Mosque, located at 2205 Albert Ave., the dispatcher said, and the shooting happened a few hundred feet from the mosque.
One person was pronounced dead at the scene by Columbus Division of Fire medics, according to Columbus Fire Lt. Nick Davis. Davis did not have additional information on other victims, and police said additional information, including any possible suspects, was not immediately available.
Federal agents also responded. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in a post on X that its special agents were responding to the reported shooting northeast of downtown Columbus, and the Associated Press reported that the area includes a cluster of two-story apartment buildings in addition to the mosque. Police have not said the mosque itself was targeted, and a Dispatch photographer at the scene said the shooting happened during a funeral at the mosque.
The death makes this an active homicide investigation in a residential part of the Northeast Side, in the blocks around Albert Avenue and Westerville Road. Neighbors and people who were at the mosque on Monday afternoon were in the area as officers responded, and the investigation was still in its first hours on Monday afternoon.
Officials have not released the name of the person who died, any description of a suspect, or what led up to the gunfire. Details that circulated in early live coverage about additional wounded victims had not been confirmed by Columbus police or fire officials in the information they released Monday afternoon, and NewsForce247 is not reporting a second victim unless officials confirm one.
Columbus police are continuing to investigate, and more information is expected as detectives work the scene and interview witnesses. Anyone who was in the 2200 block of Albert Avenue area around 2:11 p.m. Monday and saw what happened is positioned to help investigators establish the sequence of events.
Photo: Sixflashphoto, CC BY-SA