One injured in shooting near Lakebottom Park in Columbus, police say

One person is injured following a shooting Thursday afternoon in Columbus, authorities say.

Police were called around 3:39 p.m. to a shooting on 13th Street between 16th Avenue and Peacock Avenue near Lakebottom Park, according to the department’s Twitter page. No other details were made available.

This isn’t the first shooting near the park this year. On the afternoon of Feb. 19 shots rang throughout the park as people walked nearby. A video released by the Columbus Police Department shows multiple shots being fired from a vehicle driving by the park before it driving off.

Columbus City Councilor for District 8, Walker Garrett, in a community forum following the February shootings said he lives nearby and can hear the gunshots that occur at the park.

Peach Little League board member and coach Buford King spoke at a city council meeting on behalf of the league, saying gunfire around Lakebottom Park was endangering everyone who went there.

“The gunshots at Lakebottom have become a recurring theme, and it’s got to end,” King told council. “Instead of practicing fundamentals, some coaches are teaching children to get down if there’s a gunshot.”

In June 2019 a shooting that occurred about a block south of the park left a 21-year-old male victim severely brain-damaged, according to Ledger-Enquirer reporting.

In another shooting in March 2012 a 16-year-old girl who was at Lakebottom to watch a basketball tournament was struck by a bullet in her left knee, according to Ledger-Enquirer reporting.