Breaking news, crime, public safety and city government coverage in Columbus, Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Plumbing professionals in the Columbus area are urging homeowners to check their sump pumps after severe storms caused power outages across parts of central Ohio this weekend. Strong thunderstorms moved through the region Saturday and knocked out electricity for thousands of customers in Pickaway County and Fairfield County. Because most sump pumps … Read more
COLUMBUS, A person died after a shooting early Saturday outside a hotel in north Columbus, police said. Officers from the Columbus Division of Police received a call about a shooting around 1:31 a.m. on the 6100 block of Quarter Horse Drive. Police went to the scene and found a person with a gunshot wound. The … Read more
The Ohio Senate is considering legislation that would create a statewide emergency alert system for missing children with autism and other developmental disabilities, a proposal that previously passed the Ohio House unanimously. House Bill 359 would establish what lawmakers are calling a “Joshua Alert,” a notification system designed to quickly alert the public when a … Read more
COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is warning Columbus residents about fake text messages that claim they owe unpaid parking or toll fines and must pay right away or show up in court. The texts are scams. The fines are not real. And clicking the QR code in the message could put a virus … Read more
COLUMBUS — A teacher at Independence High School is on leave after she took students out of class during school hours to join an anti-ICE protest on Feb. 20 — something the school had not allowed. The school is on Refugee Road on Columbus’s south side. The teacher has not been named publicly. Columbus City … Read more
COLUMBUS — Charles Hughes still remembers the call from his son. It was May 2020, and floodwater from the Olentangy River was rising fast on the dead-end street near Broad Meadows Boulevard in Clintonville. Neighbors were throwing what they could into their cars. His son’s family waded through the water just to reach the driveway. … Read more
COLUMBUS — Kokosing Construction is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the driver who struck and killed one of its workers in a downtown Columbus work zone last week and drove away. The victim, Jordan Thomas, 25, died at the scene at 2:12 a.m. on February 28. He had worked … Read more
COLUMBUS — What started as reports of threats at five Central Ohio schools Wednesday morning turned out to be part of a much larger wave of hoax threats that hit school districts across Ohio, from Cleveland and Toledo in the north to Cincinnati and Dayton in the south. The FBI said it found no credible … Read more
DELAWARE COUNTY — Jacob A. Smith, 50, a Columbus Division of Police officer, was arrested Saturday in Delaware County and charged with felony strangulation and illegal possession of a firearm in a liquor permit premises after he allegedly strangled his girlfriend twice outside a Polaris-area restaurant, according to court records.Smith was arraigned in Delaware County … Read more
This is a developing story. Information is limited and unconfirmed at this time. ColumbusFrontline.com will update this article as official information becomes available. DUBLIN — Multiple police units and emergency vehicles responded to Tuttle Mall near the Scene 75 entertainment complex in Dublin on Saturday evening, according to multiple eyewitness reports shared on social media. … Read more