COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tanya Long is among the growing list of grieving mothers in Central Ohio after her son, 23-year-old Joshua Jones, was shot and killed on June 28.
It happened in the area of East 7th Avenue and Indianola Avenue just before 8:10 p.m. Columbus police said the vehicle that Jones was in hit a house just before they found him suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Long said Jones was becoming a businessman, known for his rasta pasta meals.
"He was becoming a man. A real man," she said. "The day everything crashed was when he went to deliver the pasta to someone."
Police later determined that Jones was in the car when he was confronted by a 22-year-old man and another unknown person. He was shot multiple times and was taken to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center where he passed away just before 6 a.m. the following day.
"We don't know if he was ambushed. We don't know anything," Long said.
What she does know is that her son lost his life in a neighborhood they've called home for over 20 years.
Long serves as president of the Weinland Park Civic Association in that same neighborhood. She said that while it doesn't change her view of the community, it has changed her life forever.
"I'm completely devastated and utterly broken, make no mistake, but what we have to do now is lie my baby to rest. And this is the very last thing that I get to do for my child. That's the last thing I could do for him. I'm going to do it with dignity and with grace," she said.
A funeral service for Jones is scheduled for Saturday, July 9.
No arrests have been made in this case. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Columbus police at 614-645-4141 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.