Columbus police say two people were hospitalized in stable condition after a shooting on the city's East Side Sunday afternoon. Officers were called to the scene around 4:40 p.m., according to police.
Medics transported one of the victims to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, while the other was taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, according to myfox28columbus.com. Both facilities are certified Level I Trauma Centers, with Grant serving as the busiest adult Level I trauma center in the state, according to WBNS 10TV. Police confirmed both patients were in stable condition as the investigation into the shooting continued.
A Separate Barnett Road Shooting
The East Side afternoon shooting was separate from an early-morning Barnett Road shooting. Hoodline covered the early-morning incident, in which one person was killed and another critically injured, in a Barnett Road shooting story.
No arrests or suspect descriptions had been released in connection with the afternoon shooting as of Sunday evening, and the investigation remained ongoing, per the original report. The circumstances leading up to the gunfire have not been detailed publicly.
How Columbus Police Handle Non-Fatal Shootings
Columbus has reorganized how it investigates non-fatal gun violence in recent months. In September, Mayor Andrew Ginther and Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced the expansion of the department's specialized Non-Fatal Shooting Team to Zone 3 on the West Side, building on a Zone 6 pilot program that posted a 94% solve rate for non-fatal shootings in 2025 compared with a 53% citywide average, the city announced on its website. The specialized units deploy homicide-level investigative resources immediately following non-fatal shootings, aiming to improve clearance rates and head off retaliatory violence.
It is not yet known whether that specialized team has taken over the investigation into Sunday's East Side shooting. Hoodline previously covered a related expansion of the program in a story about a Southeast Columbus shooting case.
East Side Violence in Broader Context
Sunday's shooting adds to a string of East Side gun violence incidents this year, including a midday shooting on East 5th Avenue in September that left a man critical before police arrested a suspect, and a shooting on Seymour Avenue in August that left a victim in critical condition during what was described at the time as a bloody week on the East Side. A Columbus teenager was also shot in the face on Maryland Avenue in August, with a juvenile suspect later identified.
The city has also seen severe sentencing outcomes tied to East Side gun violence. In September, a 23-year-old man was sentenced in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to 25 to 30 years in prison under Ohio's Reagan Tokes Law for a 2024 drive-by shooting that critically injured a 2-year-old child, Hoodline reported.
Despite the localized violence, citywide numbers tell a more complicated story. Columbus recorded approximately 80 homicides in 2025, the first time in over a decade the annual total fell below triple digits and a drop of more than 50% from a record high of 205 in 2021, according to WOSU Public Media.
Still, later in the summer, Columbus police had logged more than 50 homicide victims, with more than half of those cases involving domestic violence or verbal arguments, according to WSYX.
