A man recording himself holding $500 in cash while walking along Forest Street in Columbus' Southern Orchards neighborhood was allegedly targeted by two men who drove up and demanded his money at gunpoint. Police say the confrontation set off a vehicle chase that ended in a crash, sending the suspects running on foot before officers took them into custody.
Columbus police identified the suspects as Anthony Cowan and Tkev Davidson, both now charged with aggravated robbery, according to CW Columbus. Investigators say Cowan and Davidson drove past the victim on Forest Street before one of the two demanded his money at gunpoint, per charging documents cited in the outlet's report. Officers tracked the car the pair was driving and gave chase, and the station reports the vehicle crashed during the pursuit before both men ran off on foot. They were taken into custody later and are due in court Monday morning.
Why Officers Were Cleared to Give Chase
Columbus police pursuit directives only authorize a high-speed chase when officers have reasonable suspicion that a vehicle was involved in an offense involving the display or threatened use of a deadly weapon or serious physical harm, according to guidance published by the Ohio Attorney General. Because the robbery allegedly involved a gun, that threshold was met, and officers weighed the danger of letting an armed suspect escape against the risks of a chase. State standards also require agencies to keep written pursuit policies and complete an annual review of every pursuit incident, per the same office's guidance on statewide vehicular pursuit standards.
Aggravated robbery in Ohio is a first-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code § 2911.01, applying whenever a theft offense involves displaying or brandishing a deadly weapon, and it carries a potential prison term of three to eleven years along with fines that can reach $20,000, according to Watson Kuhlman, LLC. If prosecutors attach a firearm specification under Ohio Revised Code § 2941.145, Cowan and Davidson could also face a mandatory, consecutive three-year prison term on top of any sentence for the underlying robbery charge, per Zukerman Law. Fleeing police immediately after a felony is separately a third-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code § 2921.331, a penalty strengthened by Ohio House Bill 56 in October 2024 specifically to deter dangerous vehicle elusions following major crimes, according to Ohio Laws.
A Neighborhood Already Under Scrutiny
The robbery adds to a string of violent incidents in Southern Orchards, an urban South Side neighborhood east of Parsons Avenue near German Village where more than a fifth of housing sits vacant — a rate higher than 90.4% of neighborhoods nationwide, according to NeighborhoodScout. Hoodline previously reported on a daylight killing in the same neighborhood, and the 800 block of Forest Street itself was the site of a fatal shooting back in March 2012, when 19-year-old Carlos Hardiman Jr. was killed while sitting in a parked car, according to the Columbus Division of Police. Just last month, the department reported that violent crime enforcement operations across South Side neighborhoods including Southern Orchards had seized 185 firearms and more than 150,000 grams of narcotics.
It remains unclear whether officers recovered any weapons from the crashed vehicle, and police have not said whether the victim was targeted specifically because of the video he was recording or encountered by chance. Cowan and Davidson are expected to be arraigned Monday morning, when in-custody defendants facing new felony charges in Franklin County typically appear in Courtroom 4D of the Franklin County Municipal Court building at 375 S. High Street, according to the court. That hearing formally presents the charges and sets pre-trial bail conditions before the case can proceed to a grand jury.
Anyone with information on the case can contact Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS, an anonymous line that offers cash rewards for tips leading to felony indictments or arrests, according to the Columbus Division of Police.
