Victoria Arnold, Wells’ grandmother, said he was a hard worker at his job at Navistar and the car detailing business he started this year with his grandfather, and “did not hang out in the streets.”
“This gun violence needs to stop,” Arnold said. “People are tired of burying their young. This pain does not go away, and all we have is memories (of Wells).”
Law enforcement officers responded to a report of a man down in the street after a shooting in the 200 block of Rosewood Avenue on Saturday about 9 p.m. Wells was transferred to Mercy Heath - Springfield, where he died.
Credit: Marshall Gorby
Credit: Marshall Gorby
A representative from the Clark County Coroner’s Office said Wells was taken to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy.
Arnold said her grandson’s twin sister, Destiny, died in a rollover crash about three years ago.
Arnold’s son, Titus Arnold, was murdered in 2005, randomly shot by two men at the end of a four-day crime spree that included two other shootings. Titus Arnold worked with the juvenile court system and was about to head home to his daughter when he was shot and killed.
Arnold said she became a victim’s advocate for the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office in honor of her son.
“I became a victim’s advocate to honor my son’s memory not realizing later on I would be honoring the memory of my granddaughter, Destiny, and now my grandson, Gregory,” Arnold said. “I took this job to give back, not to bury mine, so I’m very angry about this whole situation.”
Wells’ death is the sixth homicide of 2023, according to Valerie Lough, community information coordinator for the city. That is pacing above the past two years: in 2022, the city had eight homicides, and in 2021, there were nine, she said.
Wells and his twin loved to play basketball together, Arnold said. He loved his family and had four siblings, including his twin, and two nephews and a niece.
“Every day Jr. was at my house, he would kiss me when he would leave (and) he would say ‘I love you, Bookie. See you tomorrow.’ And I would say ‘I love you, Bookie,’ and kiss him on the cheek,” Arnold said. “That was our daily ritual.”
Arnold said her grandson’s big smile “lit up a room” and he was a loving person who didn’t know a stranger. She said she and Wells’ mom will miss his kisses and hugs.
Crime scene tape blocked off about 10 houses in the Rosewood neighborhood for a few hours after the shooting. At least one vehicle could be seen with its window apparently shot.
A suspect was unknown as of Sunday afternoon, according to the police report. Lough said Monday that no arrests have been made in connection to the shooting, and police are continuing their investigation.
Multiple people in the area called 911, but no one said they saw what happened.
Two callers said they heard five gunshots and said there were eight to 10 people in the street panicking.
“Oh my God, somebody’s lying in the street,” one caller told the 911 dispatcher.
Another caller said she thought she heard someone say, “Why did you do that?”
One caller urged dispatch to send first responders urgently. Numerous voices could be heard yelling and panicking in the background.
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