Back-to-back Short North shootings leave trail of questions after violent weekend
View a previous report about the weekend shootings in the video player above.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and Police Chief Elaine Bryant are preparing Monday to address a violent weekend, with two shootings yet to have any count of their multiple victims released publicly.
Ginther and Bryant are scheduled to appear at 3 p.m. for a news conference at police headquarters. You can watch them live in the player above.
The first shooting happened around 2:30 a.m. Saturday in the 600 block of North High Street. Several blocks to the south, a second shooting broke out that ended with responding officers returning fire.
Police in the Short North on May 6, 2023 (Lindsey Weiker) 
An Ohio BCI agent at High and Russell streets in Columbus, Ohio, on May 6, 2023 (Drew Yaussy / NBC4) 
Police in Columbus, Ohio, on May 6, 2023 (Max Fleck / NBC4) 
Police in Columbus, Ohio, on May 6, 2023 (Max Fleck / NBC4) 
Police in Columbus, Ohio, on May 6, 2023 (Max Fleck / NBC4) 
A bullet into a window of a business in the Short North (NBC4/Drew Yaussy)
Police shut down the stretch running through the heart of the Short North for nearly 12 hours as they and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation combed the area. Chief Elaine Bryant later confirmed one person was hospitalized in critical condition while others were recovering, she did not share an official count of how many were hurt in the shooting. Information on suspects has not been released, either.
“Officers were here. We had officers around, they were working, they were present. Which is why they were able to respond so quickly, because they were here. So, we need to figure out how we get control of this gun situation,” Bryant said. “How do we get the guns out of their hands? Why is everybody walking around with a weapon?”
Two other shootings happened as police investigated in the Short North, but they did provide full victim counts for these. A South Linden shooting left a person dead and four others injured, while another in south Columbus left one dead.
Although details surrounding the Short North shootings have yet to be released ahead of a news conference Monday, public figures in Columbus have already made statements about the violent weekend. Mayor Andrew Ginther and Bryant both labeled it as a reverberation of changed gun laws in 2022 that now allow Ohioans to carry a weapon concealed without a permit.
“We need the state and federal government to step up, to do their part to keep guns off our streets, and if they don’t have the courage to do that then they at least need to get out of our way and let us do it,” Ginther said.