COLUMBUS, Ohio — A shooting in a northeast Columbus neighborhood near a mosque left one person dead and another injured on Monday afternoon, but police said the gunfire was not connected to the house of worship or to anyone inside it.
Columbus police were called at about 2:11 p.m. to the 2200 block of Albert Avenue, near Westerville Road, after a caller reported shots fired outside the Alrahma Mosque. One person — believed to be an adult man — was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:19 p.m., police said. A second person was found injured; that person’s condition had not been released on Monday evening.
“We want to make it clear this was not an attack on the mosque,” said Sgt. James Fuqua, a Columbus Division of Police spokesman. A funeral was being held inside the mosque at the time, but the shooting, which happened a few hundred feet away and involved two groups of people, was not related to the funeral or the mosque, he said. “At the mosque, unfortunately, there was an event going on that had nothing to do with what was going on outside,” Fuqua said. “But it’s super important that I make it clear that this shooting had nothing to do with an attack on the mosque itself.” Fuqua said the shooting may have started with an incident at an apartment complex just down the street.
How a mosque alarm spread — and was walked back
The scale of the response, and much of the early alarm, traced to an initial alert from federal authorities. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Columbus field division posted on X that its agents were responding to a report of a shooting “at a mosque” northeast of downtown. Federal agents joined Columbus police in force, and a large stretch of Albert Avenue was cordoned off with crime-scene tape. Authorities then moved to correct the picture, stressing publicly that the mosque had not been attacked as speculation spread online. Homicide detectives and crime-scene technicians worked the scene into the evening.
What we know, and what we don’t
- Known: one person is dead — believed to be an adult man, his name withheld pending identification and family notification — and one person is injured. The shooting involved two groups of people a few hundred feet from the Alrahma Mosque and may have started at a nearby apartment complex. Police say the mosque and the funeral inside it were not connected to the shooting.
- Not yet released: the injured person’s condition, any suspect description, and a confirmed motive beyond the police account of an altercation. No arrests had been announced as of Monday evening.
- Why the clarification matters: early reports framed the incident as a shooting at a mosque. Police have explicitly rejected that framing; Zark News is reporting the location as near the mosque, in line with what investigators have confirmed.
The investigation is continuing. Police asked anyone with information to contact the Columbus Division of Police. This story will be updated when police release the victim’s name and further details.
