Safety a concern on Ohio State campus after two shootings
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- As kickoff draws near for the Ohio State Buckeyes to take on the Marshall Thundering Herd, there are growing concerns about safety in the campus area following two Buckeye safety alerts sent out this week due to shootings in the area.
Columbus Police are searching for the people responsible for a shooting incident on North High Street near 11th Avenue Wednesday night. They say no one was hit by gunfire, but a graduate student was injured by debris from the shooting. Officials say that person is going to be fine.
Watch: Safety a concern on Ohio State campus after two shootings
Columbus and Ohio State Police leadership said this is cause for heightened awareness as the weekend nears.
“All of this is concerning to me, and we take this very seriously here,” said Monica Moll, Ohio State Police’s interim police chief and associate director of public safety.
Columbus Police are searching through hours of surveillance video to find those responsible for Wednesday's shooting. Students said this has them feeling a little freaked out.
“Scared. Definitely very scared,” OSU sophomore Alex Wolk said.
Ohio State Police sent out a Buckeye safety alert to students just minutes after dozens of Columbus police officers responded to the area Wednesday.
“I immediately called my friend who lives on 11th street just to make sure she was okay,” sophomore Julia Powers said.
Other students who live in the area said people were definitely looking out for each other in those moments.
“My TAs and all of my fellow coworkers are like, you're not walking home,' like we're all, we're going to ride together,” senior Dominic Kestranek said.
The latest shooting comes two days after a shooting on John Herrick Drive. Police charged 31-year-old Richard Partridge – who is not affiliated with the university – in connection to this shooting. He is being held on a $2 million bond.
With game day just hours away, OSUPD said they will be on high alert but they have the benefit of working with local and state partners.
Columbus Police Assistant Chief Gregory Bodker said this week's incidents will slightly change their approach. However, he said they don’t just look at it as only game day.
“It will slightly change regarding staffing and responsibilities for the off-campus area, but we will have a lot of personnel dedicated to the game on Saturday as well as Friday and Sunday, and a lot of people in other areas of the city have seen the increase in bicycles, walking patrols,” Bodker said.
Both Moll and Bodker said the actions this week bring up concerns about broader crime trends in Columbus. Bodker said 80 percent of the homicides in the City of Columbus so far this year have involved guns.
“So whether it's mental health and addiction issues or the prevalence of guns or youth violence, these are things that we need to partner with other community and city resources as well,” Moll said.
Moll said they did not waste time on connecting with city leaders to start working on how they can better solve these issues.
“We also want to make sure we're working toward solving some of the root causes of these incidents," Moll said. "I know President Carter has reached out to the mayor's office today to talk more about that, talk about, one, the partnership that we already have with the added police and security presence and keeping people safe right here and right now immediately, but then also connecting on some of those longer-term goals to address those three causes of what we've seen over the last couple of months."
Students said that in the wake of the violence, Buckeyes have to look out for each other.
“Since I've been a freshman here, they really encourage like travel and groups, you know, stay with your friends and don't walk off on the side streets alone by yourself or anything like that," senior Adam Washington Jr. said.
Columbus police are hoping to release pictures or videos of those involved in Wednesday's shooting as soon as possible.
“I will also add that anyone that was involved in this incident last night, you should know that I'm confident we will identify you. And so it's in your best interest to stop down by Columbus Police headquarters unarmed and let the front desk officers know that you have information about this incident. Detectives would be happy to interview you,” Bodker said.
Bodker asks anyone with information about the incident to contact police.
Moll said that in recent years, Ohio State has invested in many security enhancements including adding more lighting and cameras around campus, bringing on non-police patrols with a group called Buckeye Block watch, a partnership with lyft and quadrupling the number of joint patrols with OSUPD and CPD.