COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus police are investigating after three women were found dead with gunshot wounds inside a home on the city's south side Saturday afternoon.
According to Sgt. James Fuqua, officers were called to the 1300 block of South Ohio Avenue, near Karns Park and just off Thurman Avenue, just before 4 p.m. to investigate what a 911 caller had described as a medical event.
Fuqua said someone reported finding some of their friends inside a residence in medical distress. When officers got there, they contained the scene and medics pronounced three women dead.
In an update released on Sunday, police said that all three women had been shot and killed. The identities of the women have not yet been released.
Police are still working to learn what led up to the incident.
"This time of year — anytime of the year it's unfortunate when someone loses their life, but particularly this time of the year, during the holidays, it's going to be very difficult for these victim's families to come to the grips that these family members will no longer be in their lives," Fuqua said.
On Tuesday, officers responded to a shooting in the 700 block of East Moler Street, about a half mile from where the women were found dead.
When officers arrived, they found 45-year-old Darrell Hambrick suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to Grant Medical Center where he died the next day.
Haikiem Graham, 39, was arrested Saturday by Columbus Police SWAT officers on murder charges in connection to the Hambrick's shooting death.
A friend of Hambrick told 10TV that Hambrick lived at the home where the three women were found dead. Deandre Herndon said he went to check on the home Saturday after he learned of his friend's death and made a disturbing discovery.
“When I came to the house the door was ajar a little bit so I came in, walked in the house [and] I seen like a body laying there,” he said.
Herndon said he stepped out to call 911.
Columbus police could not comment or answer questions about whether the two homicide investigations are connected.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).
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