Updated: April 18, 2024 at 11:15 a.m.
Correction: Columbus Police now say the victim, Angel Salguero Diaz, was 13-years-old. Police previously stated that he was 12. This story has been updated.
A 13-year-old boy was shot and killed in the North Linden area of Columbus Sunday evening and police are investigating his death as a homicide.
On Wednesday, Columbus police identified the victim as Angel Salguero Diaz. Police said officers responded to the 1300 block of East Hudson Street after 10 p.m. Sunday and found Diaz. He died shortly after paramedics arrived around 10:30 p.m.
That area of Linden is filled with construction, forcing traffic to move in one direction. It's a few blocks up from the Linden Community Center and there's a drive-thru convenience store on the corner.
Marie Walker said she has lived in the area for 53 years. She said she heard gunshots and saw sirens in the alley behind the store on Sunday and went with her sister to see what happened. She said police had the alley roped off, but didn't say what had happened.
Walker said she was saddened to hear about Diaz being killed, but didn't know him. She said she knows most people on that block and wasn't aware of anyone with a child by that name.
"My heart goes out to their parents and that's a child. I love kids and all the kids around here, I call them my children. And that was my child that died," Walker said.
Walker said she has seen crime rise in her time in North Linden. There was another shooting on the same block reported by Columbus police on July 7 of last year.
Police say a woman got into an altercation with her boyfriend and shot him. No one died in that shooting.
Walker said she was a neighborhood watch captain 20 years ago and raised two sons with her husband at her home.
Walker said she fears for the children she sees walking around her street everyday.
"I would never, ever let my kids walk two blocks because I'd be afraid if they'd live or die," Walker said.
Police have not identified a suspect in connection with Diaz's death.
