COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A police investigator says he believes the people who killed two young children along with a man at an Ohio apartment complex a week ago knew the children were present and may have targeted them along with the man.
Authorities said 9-year-old Demitrius Wall’neal and 6-year-old Londynn Wall’neal were shot along with 22-year-old Charles Wade as they sat in a car in the parking lot of the Winchester Lakes apartment complex on the southeast side of Columbus on the night of Dec. 7.
Police said two armed suspects had approached the vehicle and opened fire “without any apparent warning or provocation” before a third suspect drove them away. Columbus homicide detective Terry Kelly said the shooting appeared to be “a targeted assassination.”
Police initially said they believed Wade was the intended victim, but Kelley told reporters Tuesday that investigators now believe the young children may have been targeted as well, although he’s not completely sure whether their deaths were intended or the shooters just didn’t care that the children were present.
“What I can tell you is I believe that the shooters in this case absolutely knew that those children were in the car,” Kelley said. “Whether they were the target of that shooting or not, I can’t say 100 percent for sure, but I do believe that they knew they were in the car.”
Kelley repeatedly urged anyone with firsthand information about who was at the scene to come forward, adding that he hoped that “our community would come forward and say that we will not allow this violence to happen to these kids.”
A prayer vigil was held over the weekend on a bridge in downtown Columbus in memory of the youngsters.
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