Columbus police say officers who responded to gunshots being fired in the Linden neighborhood last night came under fire themselves. At a news conference Thursday morning police spokesman Sergeant Rich Weiner says an unknown shooter or shooters fired a high caliber firearm at police.
Weiner says the officers were intentionally targeted.
“[With] gunfire you hear the pops, the loud booms, bangs, whatever it is, but you know you’ve been shot at … it’s like a soft whistle. It’s the bullet cutting through the air. A very distinct sound. So the officers felt their lives were in jeopardy,” Weiner says.
The shootings occurred in the vicinity of 1175 Windsor Avenue around midnight. Weiner says no officers were injured and police did not return fire.
“They bunkered down, they got cover. They were watching each other’s backs. And the decision was made to bring in our SWAT vehicle – the armored vehicle with our SWAT personnel – to do an emergency extraction. They extracted them and made the scene secure and from that point they started looking for additional evidence,” Weiner says.
Weiner says a number of shell casings were recovered along with one projectile. He says no suspects are in custody at this time.