Two people were shot overnight in Franklinton, prompting a heavy police response along Dana Avenue just a block from Starling PreK-8, a school serving hundreds of young students. Columbus police were called to the scene just before 12:15 Thursday morning, and investigators are still working to determine whether there were any suspects and what motive lay behind the shooting.
The conditions of the two victims were not immediately known, according to WSYX, which reported that the overnight shooting drew a large police presence to the block. Starling PreK-8, located about a block from the shooting scene, is part of Columbus City Schools, according to a description of the Franklinton neighborhood compiled by a Columbus-area housing resource. That proximity has fueled heightened anxiety among neighbors already on edge about gun violence near the school.
A Street With a Painful History
This is not the first time gunfire has struck this stretch of Dana Avenue. In March 2025, 14-year-old Braiden Johnson was fatally shot about a block from Thursday's shooting scene, according to WOSU Public Media. The earlier killing remains a grim marker for a corridor that has seen repeated violence even as the surrounding neighborhood undergoes redevelopment; the former Starling Middle School building nearby reopened in July 2025 as Starling Yard, a 45-unit affordable housing community, per the same station's coverage of the area.
New Investigative Model Faces Early Test
Thursday's shooting arrives just weeks after Columbus expanded a specialized investigative unit into the very zone that includes Franklinton. On August 31, Mayor Andrew Ginther and Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced the expansion of the Columbus Division of Police Non-Fatal Shooting Team to Zone 3, which covers Franklinton and the rest of the West Side, according to the City of Columbus. Before that expansion, the West Side's clearance rate for non-fatal shootings sat at roughly 26% across 94 reported incidents that year, as reported by WSYX ABC6.
The stakes for that new approach are high. During its 2025 pilot phase in Zone 6, the dedicated Non-Fatal Shooting Team model achieved a 94% solve rate, compared with a 53% citywide solve rate for non-fatal shootings that same year, the city's announcement noted. How Thursday's Dana Avenue shooting is investigated, and whether it is solved, could offer an early read on whether that model can replicate its Zone 6 success on the West Side.
Legal Stakes if Suspects Are Identified
Should investigators identify and arrest a suspect, Ohio law lays out steep penalties for non-fatal shootings that cause serious physical harm. Such cases are prosecuted as felonious assault, a second-degree felony punishable by two to eight years in state prison under Ohio Revised Code § 2903.11, as outlined by WBNS 10TV. A separate statute, Ohio Revised Code § 2941.145, adds a mandatory, consecutive three-year prison sentence for any felony conviction involving the display, brandishing, or use of a firearm.
Part of a Mixed Citywide Crime Picture
The Franklinton shooting lands amid a complicated year-over-year trend for violent crime in Columbus. The city recorded 81 homicides in 2025, down from 126 in 2024 and its lowest total in 16 years, according to Axios. By mid-August 2026, Columbus police had logged 52 homicides, compared with 46 by the same point in 2025, a signal that gains made the previous year have not fully held.
Franklinton in particular has seen a string of gun violence this year. Hoodline previously reported that a 19-year-old was sentenced to up to 19½ years in prison for the fatal shooting of Richard Murphy on South Princeton Avenue, and a separate shooting sent a man to the hospital along West Broad Street in August. Investigators have not said whether Thursday's shooting is connected to any earlier violence in the neighborhood.
For now, the core questions in the Dana Avenue shooting remain open. Police have not disclosed the victims' conditions, identified any suspects, or offered a motive, leaving neighbors near Starling PreK-8 to wait for answers as the investigation continues.
