Fatal shooting Saturday night pushes Columbus further past recent homicide peak

Columbus recorded its 45th homicide of this waning year Saturday night when a man mortally wounded in his car died at the hospital.

Police identified the gunshot victim as D’aijon Cooks, 20.

Officers were called at 8:44 p.m. to reports of someone shot having arrived at the Piedmont Columbus Regional emergency room, where they were told the man had died.

Detectives were told Cooks was shot while sitting in his car on Kelly Avenue, where witnesses saw two men running away. Kelly Avenue is off North Lumpkin Road near the Cusseta Road intersection.

Anyone with information on Cooks’s shooting is asked to contact Sgt. Donna Baker at 706-225- 4296 or dbaker@columbusga.org.

Columbus so far in 2020 has had two more homicides than a recent peak of 43 recorded in 2017.

Tim Chitwood

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

706-571-8508

Tim Chitwood is from Seale, Alabama, and started as a police beat reporter with the Ledger-Enquirer in 1982. He since has covered Columbus’ serial killings and other homicides, following some from the scene of the crime to trial verdicts and ensuing appeals. He also has been a Ledger-Enquirer humor columnist since 1987. He’s a graduate of Auburn University, and started out working for the weekly Phenix Citizen in Phenix City, Ala.