COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man who was released from an Ohio jail after a clerical error, is back behind bars and facing murder charges after a shooting at a gas station.
David Johnson III had been behind bars on charges related to the death of his 1-year-old child, when a human error by a court employee allowed him to be released Nov. 29, WSYX reported.
Johnson was identified as a suspect in the attempted robbery and shooting death of Andrew Combs, 21, outside a gas station on Dec. 13, WBNS reported. Johnson and Caiden Allen, 18, were charged with murder for his death.
Columbus police told WSYX that Combs was trying to stop a friend from being robbed when he was shot.
“The last thing I saw was him coming out with his vape and they shot him at least four times,” Comb’s girlfriend, Victoria Perez, who is pregnant with his child, told WBNS. “I held his hand, he kept screaming, ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die.’ I just kept screaming, ‘I need help!’”
“He had a big heart,” Deborah Combs, Andrew’s mother, told WSYX. “He wanted to step in and right wrongs. If you met Andrew, you were friends.”
Johnson was facing charges for an April 2021 fight that ended with the shooting death of a man, as well as the death of his son, who was found unresponsive in his home Nov. 18, 2022, WBNS reported. In court documents obtained by the station, officers described finding large amounts of drugs, including fentanyl, meth and cocaine, in the home. The Franklin County Coroner ruled the baby died from a drug overdose, WBNS reported.
Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page blamed “human error” for Johnson’s release, telling WBNS that “an administrative error occurred in the filing of the document revoking his bond such that the jail was not notified and that is likely why he was released.”
“As soon as I was alerted that he had been released, which I was told on December 2, I immediately requested that a warrant for his arrest be issued and that has been done,” Page told WSYX on Dec. 16.
Columbus police arrested Johnson on Monday, WBNS reported.