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Two children killed in Ohio triple homicide, cops say. ‘We will find these monsters’

Three people were killed, including two young children, in a shooting outside a Columbus apartment complex, Ohio cops say.
Three people were killed, including two young children, in a shooting outside a Columbus apartment complex, Ohio cops say. WBNS screengrab

Two children, ages 6 and 9, were among three people killed when their parked vehicle was fired upon by two suspects, Ohio cops say.

The barrage of gunfire on Tuesday, Dec. 7, outside a Columbus apartment complex led to the deaths of Charles Wade, 22, Demitrius Wall’neal, 9, and Londynn Wall’neal, 6, police said.

Officers found each of them had been shot, and they were pronounced dead at 6:45 p.m., about 30 minutes after the first reports of shots being fired. The relationships among the victims were not publicly disclosed.

“They are babies. They deserve to be here. This is unacceptable,” Assistant Police Chief LaShanna Potts said in a news briefing streamed by WBNS.

Police said two armed suspects approached the vehicle and began firing “without any apparent warning or provocation.”

The suspects then got into a waiting vehicle driven by a third suspect and fled. Police have not identified the suspects.

Potts said in her briefing Tuesday that gun violence in the city “is unacceptable.” There have been 186 homicides this year in Columbus, police said.

“I am pissed,” Potts said. “I speak for the division and the officers who have to go to these runs day in and day out, it’s getting tiresome.”

Police have asked anyone with information about the shooting to contact its homicide unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.

Potts called the shooting an “active, ongoing investigation.”

“We will find these monsters who took it upon themselves to riddle a car not knowing who is inside and in the end kill two young babies,” she said. “It’s enough — we’re done.”

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Mike Stunson
Lexington Herald-Leader
Mike Stunson covers real-time news for McClatchy. He is a 2011 Western Kentucky University graduate who has previously worked at the Paducah Sun and Madisonville Messenger as a sports reporter and the Lexington Herald-Leader as a breaking news reporter. 
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