Rodney A. Perry, 29, arrested in connection to Sunbury Plaza shooting

NORTH CAROLINA Shooting — A Columbus man was apprehended early on Wednesday morning in North Carolina on charges of shooting a lady who was found in the parking lot of a Blendon Township retail center on Tuesday night. According to Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford, 29-year-old Rodney A. Perry of Columbus’ Far East Side was apprehended at roughly one in the morning, some 30 miles northeast of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Jones was shot and killed

According to Belford, Perry has been charged with murder in connection with the shooting death on Tuesday of Amara Jones, 24, also from the Far East Side. Around 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday, police discovered Jones inside a white automobile at the Sunbury Plaza, a retail area on South Sunbury Road that is home to a Kroger’s supermarket and is close to the Dublin-Granville Road/Route 161 intersection. Belford said that Jones had been shot in the head. She was transferred to Mount Carmel East Hospital on the Far East Side of Columbus, where she was later determined to be deceased.

What where the level of casualties recorded

Gunfire struck a second vehicle in the Kroger parking lot, Belford said, but no one was harmed. Perry’s location is identified as being on the 7200 block of Waterfront Lane in the Eastpointe Lake Apartments off Reynoldsburg-New Albany Road in the Blacklick region on the Far East Side, the same address where a potential shooting had been reported soon before Jones was found in the retail complex. Belford added that there was some early uncertainty about the site of the incident, leading in Columbus police forcing entrance into the suspect’s apartment in search of a victim. Police later did another search of the resident using a warrant.

Investigation still ongoing

Video evidence exists from the retail plaza showing it as the place of the shooting, Belford said. The victim’s vehicle and bystander vehicle were struck by gunfire. Court filings show that Perry had reportedly told a lady he knew and 911 dispatchers that he had shot Jones. Perry was thought to have escaped south with authorities being able to follow him to the Gallopolis area in southeast Ohio across the Ohio River from West Virginia. A multi-state alert was issued for law enforcement to be on the watch for Perry. Perry will be extradited back to Ohio where he will face the murder accusations. That process could take days or weeks.

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