Columbus murder suspect used rifle in gang-related street shooting, police say
Police allege Kendaryl Rogers used a rifle the day he and two others associated with the Crips street gang gunned down a Columbus man during a long-running feud between warring parties.
Rogers is the second suspect to face a judge on murder charges in the Aug. 6, 2020, death of Alex Bales-Davis, who police said was targeted in a gang-retaliation “ambush” when pursuing cars caught up with the one he was in at Brennan Road and St. Mary’s Road.
Gunmen got out and opened fire, using at least three different weapons, police Sgt. Dexter Wysinger testified Tuesday during Rogers’ preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court. Bales-Davis was hit as he sat in the front passenger’s seat, before the woman driving the car pulled into a gas station at 3922 Buena Vista Road, where police found her 26-year-old passenger shot in the head.
Severely wounded, the woman survived, authorities said.
Besides Rogers, 28, police have charged Marquise Tremaine Hawkins, 27, in the homicide, alleging Hawkins also is associated with the Crips and had an ongoing dispute with Bales-Davis.
A third suspect in Bales-Davis’ death, Nekoe Phillips, 26, fatally was shot Feb. 2 near Fort Benning Road and Torch Hill Road in Columbus, where others were wounded, authorities said.
“We believe that shooting as well probably had something to do with this case,” Wysinger told Judge Julius Hunter during Rogers’ hearing Tuesday.
What led to the incident?
The detective outlined a series of events leading to Bales-Davis’ shooting, echoing much of the testimony he provided during Hawkins’ Feb. 12 hearing in Recorder’s Court.
He said Rogers was among the friends who with Hawkins got into a brawl with Bales-Davis and others about three weeks before the homicide. That was at an Armour Road bar called Club Fetish, where the fight led to gunfire, he said.
That was followed by a drive-by shooting in Phenix City where Hawkins, his girlfriend and a child were wounded, Wysinger said.
The detective did not give a date for that shooting at Tuesday’s hearing, but during Hawkins’ February court hearing, defense attorney Stacey Jackson said it was on Aug. 3, when gunmen sprayed bullets at a home where Hawkins was hit four times, twice in the leg, once in the hip and again in the torso. Two vehicles were damaged, one of which belonged to Hawkins, Jackson said.
Hawkins was in the hospital until Aug. 5, the day before Bales-Davis was shot.
Wysinger testified Tuesday that Rogers became “extremely angry” after the Phenix City shooting, and witnesses said he began brandishing weapons and talking about getting even with the enemies he called “the opposition.”
That’s what culminated in Bales-Davis’ shooting around 3 a.m. Aug. 6, when two vehicles caught up with the car he was in, and gunmen shot it up in the street, where nearby security cameras recorded it, Wysinger said.
Informants later identified a man with the street name “KD” as one of the shooters, and detectives matched that to Rogers, he said. They also located and seized the vehicle he was driving the day of Bales-Davis’ shooting, and found a .223-shell casing in it, he said.
Police got warrants for Rogers in January, and he was arrested March 4 in South Carolina, with a .223-caliber rifle that investigators believe was used in the shooting, the detective said.
Police also have tracked Rogers’ cell phone signals, which placed him in the area at the time Bales-Davis was shot, Wysinger said.
He declined to answer many of defense attorney William Kendrick’s questions, saying police would not divulge any information that might identify witnesses.
“The witnesses all are afraid for their lives in this case,” he said.
Kendrick said after the hearing that he can’t weigh the credibility of those witnesses until he knows who they are.
“The thing about anonymity is you just don’t know,” Kendrick said. He added that just because Rogers’ cell phone signal is traced to a location does not mean Rogers had the device, and he questioned whether Rogers could have driven one of the vehicles that chased Bales-Davis down and at the same time fired a rifle that typically takes two hands to handle.
Wysinger said ballistics tests have not yet matched Rogers’ gun to the shell casing found in the car he was driving, or to the bullets that killed Bales-Davis. Police still are waiting on those results, he said.
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 5:26 PM.