'Hello! We need help too,' Neighbors concerned with 'overflow' of CPD staff in Short North
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — "I don’t mind them going after crime in the Short North, I want that. But my gosh, here we are in the most violent district in all of Columbus and those efforts and not being spent here," said an organizer of Westgate Watch, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.
Residents from the Hilltop, Westgate and the Wedgewood neighborhoods said they are frustrated by what they called a 'knee-jerk reaction' by the city to pour police resources into the Short North while they said their streets see violence weekly.
"We have people getting murdered in our community multiple times a week," Hilltop Connections founder Carla Carr said. "There was a shoot-out two streets over from mine a couple days prior to the shootings in the Short North. It didn’t get more than a blip on the news. There wasn’t a massive police presence coming up to the Hilltop to say, ‘we’re not going to stand for this any longer.’"
We have people getting murdered in our community multiple times a week. There isn't a massive police presence coming to the Hilltop.
RELATED | Columbus police to continue expanded Short North safety measures over Memorial Day weekend
WSYX tracked the number of fatal shootings in the Wedgewood neighborhood over the last two and a half years. A total of 13 people were fatally shot between March 2020 and May 2023.
"Who is surprised? That’s my reaction," Carr said. "People get murdered over there every other month. I can’t even begin to count how many people have been shot in Wedgewood."
2023
- April 23: Said Abdi Arbo, 21 years-old
2022
- May 26: Jazmine Carter, 19 years-old
- October 12: Sinzae Reed, 13 years-old
- December 17: Suleeman Abdi, 25 years-old
2021
- February 3: Jesse D. Shields, 38 years-old
- March 18: Charles Jeffrey Shaw Jr., 24 years-old
- June 12: George Gregory Miguel, 22 years-old
- July 3: Dustin S. Lacey, 33 years-old
- July 27: Amber Calloway, 28 years-old
- August 19: Alyse Edwards, 34 years-old
2020
- March 1: Brent T. Bailey Jr., 18 years-old
- April 23: Hussein Osman Abdi, 16 years-old
- October 2: Isaiah Petty, 23 years-old
Last weekend, members of the Westgate Watch said security tools like a CPD camera at Westgate Park was moved to the Short North.
"We are watching, we are connected as neighbors," a Westgate Watch member said. "If you are going to pull a very valuable camera out of a neighborhood that has suffered greatly, we are going to see it."
"They installed the cameras in our parks because people were getting murdered in our parks and they have now taken them from our parks and moved them down to the Short North," Carr said. "People are still going to get murdered over here."
Carr said she feels like her Hilltop community is not a priority for the city.
"I can tell that they treat the Short North significantly different," she said. "Many of the communities are treated differently in our city. We have real problems over here and you can’t just say, ‘well, we have to pay attention to the Short North,’ when people are dying over here all the time."
WSYX talked to Mayor Ginther about these neighbors' concerns.
"This has never been an either-or proposition it’s always been both," Ginther said. "We’ve done the work that we are doing in the Short North in other parts of the city and we are going to continue to do that this summer and in the months ahead."
Mayor Ginther continued, "What we are doing in the Short North is in addition to everything else we are doing across the city. You are going to see elements of what you’ve seen in the Short North take place across other neighborhoods in the city that want to see more enforcement, more proactive policing and a stepped-up presence."
Neighbors said they want to work together with the mayor and other city leaders.
"We work well with CPD," a Westgate resident said. "The city leaders seem to be the missing link on how to connect their case resolution to crimes. Let's work together. You have the neighbor’s engagement."
That Westgate resident said hard work has been ongoing to create safer and lower crime communities through the nonprofit, SecUrban Living. The group has multiple networks citywide.
What we expect is to monitor and prove where, who, and when crimes occur. We are not counting on the city to do that. That’s what we do. We are going to continue to do that.
"What we expect is to monitor and prove where, who, and when crimes occur. We are not counting on the city to do that. That’s what we do. We are going to continue to do that. I certainly hope and I certainly pray that on Memorial Day weekend, the official start of summer in Columbus, that there isn’t another Bicentennial Park incident, that there isn’t another Westgate Park incident, that there isn’t another Glenwood Park incident."
