A 23-year-old man died Tuesday evening after a shooting inside a gym on Columbus’ Far West Side.
Columbus police responded to the Esporta Fitness off Hilliard Rome Road around 8:45 p.m. on a report of a shooting. Inside they found one person, who was taken to Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. That person, identified as 23-year-old Tabias Cunningham, of the Far West Side, died at 9:37 p.m. at the hospital.
Amar Singh, 17, and his sister were working out inside Esporta when he said they heard five to six shots coming from the gym’s basketball court. At first mistaking the shots for dropped weights, they quickly made their way to an emergency exit and went to a nearby restaurant, he said, upon realizing what they had heard.
“We didn’t get a view of the shooting,” he said. “We just ran to the back.”
A source close to the Hilliard gym told the Dispatch that Esporta has closed basketball facilities at all of its Ohio locations following the shooting.
Outside the gym around 10 p.m., gymgoers unable to get their things from inside the building or go to their cars in the roped-off parking lot climbed into a stationary COTA bus to stay warm.
The gym’s management sent a notice to members Tuesday evening saying the facility would be closed until 9 a.m. Wednesday morning “due to disinfecting.”
According to social media posts, Cunningham had a young daughter and had just turned 23 on March 23.
Police have not released any suspect’s identity but said a person is believed to have fled the scene in a small white vehicle. Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.
Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner contributed to this report.
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