Pique Media · Investigations
Five Summers of Gunfire on North High Street
Between July 2021 and August 2026, at least a dozen shootings left 39 people shot — three of them fatally — along a one-mile stretch of Columbus’s Short North, from Goodale Street to Fifth Avenue. Nearly all of them happened after dark, most in the hours after last call.
The Short North is Columbus’s showpiece: a corridor of galleries, patios and late-night bars strung along North High Street. It is also, in the small hours of summer weekends, the site of a recurring pattern of gun violence that public records make plain.
What follows maps every verified, publicly documented shooting on North High Street or an immediately adjoining intersection between Goodale Street and Fifth Avenue since July 2021. It is not a complete police-data census, and block-level locations are plotted as approximate. But taken together, the incidents trace the same few blocks, again and again, at the same few hours.
The corridor
One mile of North High Street
Goodale Street to Fifth Avenue · July 2021 – Aug. 2026
Twelve incidents in five years. Filled red markers are fatal shootings; open markers are nonfatal. Dashed rings mark block-level locations plotted approximately.
SN-01 · Nonfatal
An argument, then crossfire
July 18, 2021 · 3:50 a.m. · 900 block N. High St., near W. 1st Ave.
An argument escalated into gunfire; a third victim was caught in the crossfire.
Block-level location — plotted approximately.
SN-02 · Nonfatal
Four wounded outside a music venue
July 24, 2021 · about 3 a.m. · N. High St. near E. 4th Ave., by Skully’s Music-Diner
Six days after the first shooting of the summer, four people were wounded; all were expected to survive.
Intersection-level location — plotted approximately.
Photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0SN-03 · Nonfatal
The 900 block, again
June 19, 2022 · shortly before 1 a.m. · 900 block N. High St., near W. 1st Ave.
Two groups exchanged gunfire on the same block as the previous summer’s crossfire shooting.
Block-level location — plotted approximately.
SN-04 · Nonfatal
Outside Union Café
June 26, 2022 · about 3 a.m. · 700 block N. High St. at Hull Alley
Two confirmed gunshot victims, one week after the 900-block exchange.
Block-level location — plotted approximately.
SN-05 · Fatal
The corridor’s first death
July 20, 2022 · 1:48 a.m. · 847 N. High St., UDF rear entrance
A 51-year-old man was killed behind the United Dairy Farmers store — the first fatal shooting in this dataset.
SN-06A + SN-06B · Nonfatal · Linked scenes
Ten wounded across two scenes
May 6, 2023 · beginning 2:33 a.m. · 624 and 847 N. High St.
Gunfire at 624 N. High St. was followed minutes later by a second linked scene at 847 N. High St., where officers returned fire. The 10 wounded is a shared total across both scenes.
SN-07 · Nonfatal
Ten more, a summer later
June 23, 2024 · about 2:28 a.m. · 1100 block N. High St., between E. 3rd and E. 4th avenues
At least four suspected shooters opened fire on the corridor’s northern blocks.
Block-level location — plotted approximately.
Photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: londonexpat / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: CPD2015 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0SN-08 · Nonfatal
Before dark, for once
May 24, 2025 · shortly after 9 p.m. · N. High St. and Buttles Ave.
An adult and a juvenile were wounded — the only incident in this dataset before midnight.
Intersection-level location — plotted approximately.
SN-09 · Nonfatal
Near Bernard’s Tavern
Sept. 7, 2025 · around midnight · near 630 N. High St.
One person was stabilized; a suspect was reportedly detained.
Location given as “near” — plotted approximately.
SN-10 · Fatal
J’Vontia Cassell, 25
Sept. 21, 2025 · about 2:45 a.m. · 1100 block N. High St.
Two weeks after the Bernard’s Tavern shooting, J’Vontia Cassell, 25, was killed on the 1100 block — the second death on the corridor.
Block-level location — plotted approximately.
SN-11 · Nonfatal
An early-evening shooting
Nov. 17, 2025 · shortly before 6:15 p.m. · 1100 block N. High St.
One person was seriously wounded on the same block where Cassell was killed two months earlier.
Block-level location — plotted approximately.
SN-12 · Fatal
Tiegiaion Tiquez Clement, 20
Aug. 23, 2026 · 3:08 a.m. · 1000 block N. High St., near E. 4th Ave.
Five days before publication, Tiegiaion Tiquez Clement, 20, was killed near E. 4th Avenue — the corridor’s third death, and its twelfth shooting since July 2021.
Block-level location — plotted approximately.
The full record
39 shot. Three killed. One street.
Twelve incidents · July 2021 – Aug. 2026
Every incident but one occurred between midnight and 4 a.m. The same handful of blocks — the 600s, the 800s, the 900s, the 1100s — appear more than once.
