By Jim Woods
The Columbus Dispatch
WHITEHALL, Ohio — A Hilltop man wanted on two murder charges was shot by Columbus police SWAT officers last night at a Whitehall gas station.
Anthony Lamar Wadsworth, 19, was shot multiple times in a car at the Murphy USA gas station on E. Main Street, near the Collingwood Avenue intersection, at 7 p.m.
Wadsworth underwent surgery at Grant Medical Center and was expected to survive, according to Sgt. Rich Weiner, spokesman for the Police Division.
Columbus police had been looking for Wadsworth for the past few days, after warrants were issued for his arrest.
Yesterday, they received a tip that Wadsworth was with his girlfriend, Weiner said.
SWAT officers discovered that the two were in a car driven by his girlfriend on the East Side. When she pulled into the Whitehall gas station and then walked into the store, SWAT officers approached the car and ordered Wadsworth out, Weiner said.
Wadsworth, he said, made a move toward getting behind the steering wheel to drive away. An unmarked police vehicle blocked the car from the front, Weiner said.
Wadsworth’s car lurched forward and hit a police vehicle, Weiner said. That’s when four SWAT officers opened fired, shattering the windows of the car on the passenger’s side.
Wadsworth’s girlfriend was not arrested. The names of the officers involved weren’t released last night.
Wadsworth was charged in two separate slayings. On Tuesday, he was charged with murder in the shooting death of Dennis M. Kiser, 27, of the West Side.
Kiser was found dead early Tuesday behind an apartment in the Lehnert Green Apartments complex on the Far West Side.
Wadsworth also was charged on Saturday with aggravated murder and aggravated burglary in the death of Wayne Pender, 51, on the Hilltop on Friday night.
This is the third Columbus police shooting this year.
Copyright 2012 The Columbus Dispatch