Two people were shot Monday afternoon outside a Columbus church as a funeral for 20-year-old Demontae Johnson was concluding, sending more than 200 mourners scrambling for cover in the parking lot. Investigators believe the shooting was a drive-by carried out by multiple people in a dark-colored vehicle as attendees stepped outside the sanctuary to begin a procession to the cemetery. Both victims are expected to survive.
The shooting happened outside Antioch Jordan Church on Woodland Avenue, according to CW Columbus. The church, located at 1825 Woodland Avenue in the city's Argyle Park neighborhood, was formed in February 2025 through a merger of Antioch Baptist Church and Jordan Bible Church, according to the congregation. Mourners had gathered there to honor Johnson, known to friends and family as “Peanut,” who was fatally wounded on Columbus's southeast side.
Attendee Sanai Mills described Johnson as a beautiful person and beautiful spirit and recounted the panic that broke out as shots rang out just as the service was wrapping up. Another attendee initially mistook the gunfire for fireworks before realizing what was happening.
A Killing Rooted in a Family Feud
Johnson was shot around 10:55 p.m. on July 26 at the Leader Square Shopping Center in the 2500 block of Petzinger Road in southeast Columbus, according to 10TV WBNS. He died four days later, on July 30, at Grant Medical Center. Columbus police arrested 20-year-old Treshon J. Corbin of Reynoldsburg on murder charges, with court documents alleging Corbin fired from a vehicle door amid an ongoing feud between the two men's families.
A Franklin County Municipal Court judge set Corbin's bond at $2 million following his arrest, the station's report notes. Under Ohio Revised Code § 2941.146, discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle carries a mandatory five-year prison specification that must run consecutively to any sentence for the underlying felony, according to the Joslyn Law Firm. Police have not publicly named a suspect or established a motive in Monday's church shooting, leaving open the question of whether it connects to the same family dispute that led to Johnson's death.
Officials Call the Attack Unnecessary
Columbus officials described the shooting as unnecessary and urged an end to the gun violence, per CW Columbus's reporting. Police Sergeant James Fuqua put it bluntly: Gun violence on top of violence is never the answer. Investigators say the shooting involved at least one shooter and are asking anyone with information, including about the dark-colored vehicle involved, to contact Columbus police.
Part of a Broader Spike in Violence
The Petzinger Road corridor where Johnson was killed has seen repeated gun violence this year. In March, a car carrying four juveniles was fired upon in the 3700 block of the same street, as Hoodline previously reported, and a separate shooting arrest on the corridor came in February.
Monday's shooting also lands amid a citywide surge in homicides after a year of historic progress. Columbus logged 84 homicides in 2025, a 31 percent drop from 2024 and the first time in more than a decade the annual total stayed below 100, according to WOSU Public Media. But by late July 2026, the city had already reached at least 50 homicides, outpacing the 46 recorded over the same period in 2025, per WSYX ABC6. A midyear survey by the Major Cities Chiefs Association found Columbus police investigated 36 homicides and 360 robberies through June 30, compared with 40 homicides and 300 robberies in the first half of 2025.
