One dead after shooting outside Target store in Ohio

Danger to the public is over, according to officials

One person is dead after a shooting Monday morning outside of a Target store in northeast Columbus, Ohio, according to police. (Screengrab of WCMH-TV)

One person is dead after a mid-morning shooting outside of a Target store in northeast Columbus, Ohio, according to police.

A male, whose identity has not yet been released, was shot just before noon, and police are looking for a late-model Chevrolet Impala car in connecting to the killing. The deceased, pronounced dead on the scene, was not a Target employee scheduled for work on Monday, according to officials.

“Unfortunately the victim succumbed to injuries from apparent gunshot wounds and the medics pronounced that victim at 11:52 am. At this time the identity of the victim is unknown,” Columbus police sergeant James Fuqua told reporters on Monday. “The scene is still being processed, and medics were not able to transport the victim. We’re trying to be very respectful of the victim’s family. Until we know who that victim is, we unfortunately can’t say who it is.”

There’s no remaining danger to the public connected to the shooting, though the store remains closed as Columbus police process evidence.

The killing is reportedly the 175th homicide in Columbus this year, tying the city’s record number of killings, set in 2000, WBNS reports.

The murder rate has been rising across the country in recent months. America registered its largest-ever annual increase in murders last year, with the national homicide rate rising nearly 30 per cent in 2020, accordingly to recently released FBI statistics. Killings rose in every region of the country as well as various types of communities, increasing across the board small towns, suburbs, and cities.

Still, the sharp increase does not bring America back to its worst levels of violence, seen in the 1990s. Since 1991, the US murder rate has dropped more than 50 per cent, and is still 34 per cent lower despite 2020’s shocking totals, The Guardian reported.

A variety of factors may be causing the increase in violence, according to experts, from the economic and mental toil of the pandemic, to a record surge of gun sales in recent years.