Overnight shooting near downtown marks Columbus’ first homicide of 2021

Columbus marked its first homicide of the year early Wednesday when a man fatally was shot on Fifth Avenue.

Police called around 12:15 a.m. to the 600 block of Fifth Avenue found Damien Nesbitt out on the street with gunshot wounds, said Muscogee County Deputy Coroner Freeman Worley.

He said medics tried to revive Nesbitt at the scene, and emergency room staff tried again at Piedmont Columbus Regional, where Nesbitt was pronounced dead at 12:51 a.m. He was 37 years old, Worley said.

Columbus reported later Wednesday that Nesbitt’s car, a 2005 Lexus ES30 with the Georgia tag RPB 8587, was stolen.

Anyone with information on the shooting and car theft is asked to contact Cpl. Roy Green at 706-225-4261 or roygreen@columbusga.org.

Columbus had 46 homicides in 2020, the last reported on Dec. 26. That total surpassed a recent peak of 44 in 2017. The city had 41 in 2019 and 34 in 2018.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct street of the shooting.

This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 12:48 PM.

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.