A man wanted in connection with three separate 2025 shootings across Columbus was captured in Columbus after more than a year evading authorities, closing out a manhunt that stretched across state lines and multiple federal and local agencies. Trey Morris now faces a $5 million bond and a stack of felony charges tied to shootings in Olde Towne East, the University District, and Argyle Park.
An October 3 Instagram post
said investigators were still searching for Morris. As reported by
NBC4 WCMH-TV
, Morris was arrested in connection with three 2025 Columbus shootings and formally charged with seven counts of felonious assault.
A March Shooting That Left a Man Paralyzed
The earliest of the three incidents happened on March 13, 2025, on East Main Street near Allen Avenue in Olde Towne East, per NBC4's reporting. Officers found the victim with a gunshot wound to his back and rushed him to the hospital in critical condition; he survived, but hospital staff later told him he was paralyzed from the waist down. A woman at the scene suffered a minor injury in the same shooting, NBC4 reported.
Columbus police officers collected 41 shell casings at the scene, according to the station's reporting. Witnesses told police that Morris and several others had argued with the victim over his dating a woman before the shooting occurred. Security video from a neighboring health building reportedly captured a white Chevrolet Cruze circling the area roughly 10 minutes before the gunfire, and the same vehicle was recorded at 3:33 a.m. as a backseat passenger leaned out and fired at the home on East Main Street, per the outlet's account.
Investigators also found that cellphones belonging to possible victims, including Morris, had been turned off before the shooting and switched back on afterward, the station reported. Instagram posts on Morris's own account reportedly revealed further information tying him to the shooting, and he was named as a second suspect in the case per the felony complaint report cited by NBC4.
University District Gunfire Caught on Camera
Morris was also wanted by U.S. Marshals in connection with a June 2025 shooting that unfolded on East 13th Avenue near North Pearl Street in the University District. According to NBC4's reporting, two men were reportedly sitting outside a business when they were shot at on June 16, though no one was injured in that incident. Security cameras captured the shooting, and police recognized Morris from prior incidents, the station reported.
Surveillance footage helped identify Morris in this case, the outlet reported.
A Drive-By Into an Occupied Home in Argyle Park
The third and most severe incident took place in September 2025 on Blake Avenue in Columbus's Argyle Park neighborhood. NBC4 reported that the shooting seriously injured two people, while an Instagram post
detailing the case described gunfire fired into an occupied residence that paralyzed a man, wounded a woman in the arm, and endangered two other people inside the home.
Ohio Revised Code
.
Co-defendant Jacob Driscoll, 21, was named alongside Morris in the September shooting, per NBC4's reporting. Driscoll has pleaded not guilty to charges across all of his pending cases, which total six separate incidents and 27 felony charges, the station reported. Driscoll was also featured on Central Ohio Crime Stoppers' “Wanted Wednesday” bulletin in October 2025 for unlawful possession of a firearm, with authorities noting he frequently frequented Columbus's Linden neighborhood.
Separate Threats and a Marshal's Warning
Court records cited by NBC4 also describe another suspect sending the victim messages mocking him for being in a wheelchair, and telling him during a FaceTime call, “you remember what happened last time.” The U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio, who led public warnings about Morris's threat to public safety, said, “We need to get him off the streets because if we don't, we just don't know what he's going to do next,” warning that Morris's next violent act could result in someone's death, per NBC4's reporting.
That marshal is Michael D. Black, a U.S. Marshal with the U.S. Marshals Service for the Southern District of Ohio. The office oversees the Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team, known as SOFAST.
How Detectives Built the Case Before Marshals Took Over
Non-fatal firearm assault investigations in Columbus are typically handled by the Major Crimes Bureau's Felony Assault Unit, which operates a public tip hotline at 614-645-4141 and only transfers cases to the Homicide Unit if a victim dies, as Hoodline has previously reported.
Morris faces seven felonious assault charges across the case, each classified under Ohio Revised Code § 2903.11 as a second-degree felony carrying two to eight years in prison and fines up to $15,000 per count, according to legal resources from Zukerman Law.
