Columbus police make arrests in two separate homicides
Columbus homicide detectives have charged two suspects in fatal shootings, one from August 2020 and the other this past Jan. 7.
In the later case, 20-year-old Jaquarius Cole was charged with felony murder in the death of Byron Petty, 22, found shot about 5 p.m. at 16th Street and 14th Avenue when patrol officers on another call heard gunshots and went to investigate.
Petty was rushed to the Piedmont Columbus Regional emergency room, where doctors pronounced him dead at 5:43 p.m.
Cole later arrived by private vehicle at the hospital, to be treated for a gunshot wound, and investigators determined he and Petty were shot “during an altercation,” police said.
Cole surrendered to police Wednesday. Besides murder, he’s charged with possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute it, and using a firearm to commit a crime. He’s to have a preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court at 9 a.m. Friday.
The 2020 case
In a separate, unrelated case, Kendaryl Rogers has been charged in the Aug. 6, 2020 shooting of Alex Bales-Davis, 26, who mortally was wounded while sitting in the front passenger’s seat of a car, police said.
The shooting happened in the street, where the woman driving the vehicle also was wounded before she pulled over at a gas station at 3921 Buena Vista Road, where police were called. She was treated at the hospital and survived.
Police later got warrants charging Rogers and two others in Bales-Davis’ death. One of the other suspects, Nekoe Phillips, 26, was killed in a shooting this past Feb. 2 on Fort Benning Road. Another, Marquis Hawkins, was arrested Feb. 11.
Rogers was arrested Thursday in Phenix City, where he awaits extradition to Columbus, authorities said.