With more than two months until the end of 2017, the Columbus Division of Police says the number of homicides in the city has already surpassed the total for all of 2016.
Police say there have now been 107 homicides in Columbus in 2017, one more than in 2016. The 2016 total was surpassed this week after four people were killed in three separate shootings within a 16-hour period on Monday and Tuesday.
Those killed include JoJo Holloway, 17, and Brent Black, 31. The two were shot inside an apartment in the Winchester Park Apartments on Columbus鈥� Southeast Side. Jordan Marquane Aekins, 21, was arrested shortly after the shootings and is charged with two counts of murder.
Speaking on Columbus Chief of Police Kim Jacobs couldn鈥檛 give a definitive reason for the spike in murders, but said she suspected it was related to an increase in gang activity, and violence related to the opioid epidemic.
At the time, Jacobs, said about three-quarters of the city鈥檚 homicides in 2017 involved guns.
