Two Shootings Rattle Columbus Overnight, One Victim Grazed Near Ohio State

Two people are recovering after separate overnight shootings struck the University District and the Old North neighborhood in Columbus, with one victim grazed by a bullet near Ohio State University's campus and another walking into a hospital with a gunshot wound. Columbus police officers responded to the first scene on the 100 block of East 13th Avenue just after 1:30 a.m. today, where they found an adult victim who had been grazed by gunfire.

According to WSYX, the second shooting happened in the Old North neighborhood, where a victim arrived as a walk-in patient at a local hospital with a gunshot wound. That victim told officers they had been shot near the 200 block of Oakland Avenue. It remains unclear whether the two shootings are connected, and police have not indicated a motive or suspect information for either case.

Central Ohio Crime Stoppers is accepting anonymous tips at 614-461-8477, while anyone with direct information for investigators can reach Columbus police at 614-645-4141.

A Corridor With a Troubled Recent History

The East 13th Avenue shooting adds to a string of violent incidents that have unsettled the University District in recent months. Hoodline previously reported that two early-morning armed robberies struck the same corridor within 24 hours in May, involving physical assaults along North High Street and East 13th Avenue that stoked safety concerns among residents near campus. Weeks later, Hoodline covered the arrest of an 18-year-old suspect tied to a University District shooting and a North High Street robbery case.

The neighborhood's history with gun violence stretches back further. In May 2024, a shooting inside a home on the 400 block of East 13th Avenue left one man dead and another wounded, resulting in murder charges against two suspects, according to WBNS 10TV. That case, near the Ohio State Fairgrounds, stemmed from a fatal robbery dispute.

Part of a Wider Summer Surge in Violence

Today's shootings follow a pattern of overnight gun violence that has touched multiple Columbus neighborhoods in recent weeks. Hoodline reported an overnight shooting on South Hague Avenue near West High School left a man critical just two days earlier, and a Short North shooting at High Street and Fourth killed one person less than a week before that. An earlier shooting along Olentangy River Road in August also left one person wounded and drew a response from the Columbus Division of Police's Non-Fatal Shooting Team.

That team was expanded after an 18-month pilot program in Zone 6 raised non-fatal shooting solve rates from a citywide average of 46 percent to 75 percent, according to the City of Columbus. The program applies homicide-style team investigation protocols to non-fatal gun assault cases, though it has not been confirmed whether detectives from that unit have taken over today's investigations.

The overnight violence comes amid a broader citywide surge. By late July, Columbus had recorded 50 homicides for the year, surpassing the 46 homicides logged during the same period in 2025 due to a mid-summer increase in violent incidents, per WSYX. That marks a reversal from earlier trends: Columbus logged 84 homicides in 2025, a 31 percent drop from 2024 and the city's lowest annual total in over a decade, according to Axios, following a peak of 205 homicides in 2021.

City Touted Progress Before Recent Uptick

Columbus was ranked the fifth large U.S. city for reducing gun victimizations in an April Center for American Progress report, which recorded a 63.5 percent decline in gun victimizations from 2021 to 2025, the city noted in a release. That progress followed the 2023 creation of the city's Office of Violence Prevention after a pandemic-era peak in shootings.

Mayor Andrew Ginther cited such initiatives, including the Non-Fatal Shooting Team and the Crime Gun Intelligence Center, when he announced a five-year contract extension in May for Police Chief Elaine Bryant, who became the first Black woman to lead the Columbus Division of Police when she was appointed in 2021, according to WOSU Public Media.

The department has continued to operate with a staffing deficit of more than 200 officers below its authorized strength of roughly 1,900, a gap that public safety analysts have cited when examining emergency response capacity during overnight shifts with simultaneous calls. Ohio's permitless concealed carry law, enacted in 2022 under Senate Bill 215, also remains part of the backdrop, having eliminated state training and permit requirements for adults 21 and older carrying concealed handguns in public.

Anyone facing felonious assault charges with a deadly weapon in Ohio confronts a second-degree felony carrying two to eight years in prison, plus mandatory consecutive time for firearm specifications, under Ohio Revised Code § 2903.11. No arrests have been announced in connection with either today's shooting, and police have not released further details on suspects or motives.