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    Shooting Leads to Tension on the Short North Block Watch Facebook Page

    Columbus police are still investigating the killing of Tyrone Brandy, who was found shot to death in Italian Village on Thursday. The 29 year old had crashed the car he was driving into a parked vehicle near the corner of East 3rd and Say Avenues. When authorities arrived on the scene, they discovered Brandy had been shot before crashing the car.

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    Meanwhile, the shooting seems to have stirred some class and racial tensions in the Short North neighborhood. As details of the murder were reported on Thursday, Jared Wilson, the Italian Village captain of the Short North Block Watch appeared to blame residents of nearby Section 8 housing for the crime.

    “In my opinion,” wrote Wilson on the SNBW Facebook page, “I feel that these crime related incidents are generated from the residents in the CPO properties (namely the Virginia).” :

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    Some commenters on the SNBW page agreed with Wilson’s reaction to the shooting, including one who described local Section 8 housing as “nothing more than a base of operation for criminals in the area” which should be “sold off as condos” :

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    Others on the page accused Wilson and other commenters of “blatant racism”.

    “To be honest a majority of the comments about this just reaffirm the negative opinion of gentrification that I hoped we would all [b]e trying our hardest to fight off,” wrote commenter Jeff Mixter:

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    Wilson made sure to clarify that he was speaking only for himself and not for the Block Watch as an organization. The SNBW was established in 2012 in an effort to share crime and safety information between residents of Italian Village, Victorian Village, Harrison West, Dennison Place, The Circles, and the High Street Business District. Most of the information sharing takes place on the group’s Facebook page, which makes it vulnerable to unseemly comments.

    Wilson became the Italian Village SNBW captain in April of this year. Soon after that, he posted “THERE WILL BE ABSOLUTELY NO FIGHTING, HARASSMENT, ETC ON THE SHORT NORTH BLOCK WATCH PAGE!” after unspecified comments were made having to do with alleged racism on the Facebook page:

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    Meanwhile, police have released no new information on who might have killed Brandy, who lived on the North Side. Anyone who might have information on the shooting can contact Columbus homicide detectives at 614-645-4730.

    To visit the Short North Block Watch Facebook Page, CLICK HERE.

    For ongoing updates on the shooting, CLICK HERE to visit our Messageboard

    UPDATE (June 7, 10am) : The previously mentioned posts have all been removed from the SNBW Facebook Page and Short North Block Watch Coordinator Amelia Costanzo posted the following message:

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    Jesse Bethea
    Jesse Betheahttps://columbusunderground.com
    Jesse Bethea is a freelance features writer at Columbus Underground covering neighborhood issues, economics, science, technology and other topics. He is a graduate from Ohio University, a native of Fairfax, Virginia and a fan of movies, politics and baseball. Jesse is the winner of The Great Novel Contest and the author of Fellow Travellers, available now at all major retailers.
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