Teen gunned down in midtown residence marks city’s 9th homicide of 2021

A teenager gunned down in a residence just four blocks west of Columbus’ Lakebottom Park marks the city’s ninth homicide so far this year.

Deputy Coroner Elizabeth Allison pronounced 19-year-old Jaylan Dobbins dead from multiple gunshot wounds at 12:43 a.m., authorities said.

Dobbins was inside a home at 1402 16th Street, said Coroner Buddy Bryan. It was not Dobbins’ home address, Bryan said.

Columbus police said officers were called to a shooting there at 12:12 a.m., and emergency medics tried to revive Dobbins before he died.

They notified Allison at 12:25 a.m., Bryan said.

Police are asking anyone with information on the shooting to contact Detective Zach Cole at 706-225-4295 or zcole@columbusga.org.

Dobbins’ death is the third homicide Columbus has reported in this first week of February. The city had six in January.

This story was originally published February 6, 2021 at 11:43 AM.

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.