One injured in Douglass Park shooting

Police and medical units responded to a gunshot victim in a central Columbia park Thursday evening.

Officers were called to Douglass Park just before 6:30 p.m. off Providence Road. When they arrived, they found the male victim conscious and breathing with a gunshot wound to his shoulder, lying on the park’s east side along Fifth Street between Lyon and Rogers Street.

Police said a black male suspect fired at the victim before leaving on foot. Sergeant Harlan Hatton said witnesses saw him running towards Hickman High School.

The park saw its share of shootings in 2012 and 2013, including a fight that started there and ended with the death of 22-year-old Deaudre Johnson. The city followed up by dedicating two officers to patrol and speak with park-goers daily, and conducted more than a dozen improvement projects.

Thursday’s shooting marks the first one within the park since August 2014.

“We’ve had, definitely, a decrease in crime down here, in my opinion,” Sgt. Hatton told ABC 17 News. “We still have some issues, but I think we’re working through them.”