A Columbus man has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of an 18-year-old woman that stemmed from a domestic violence incident on the city’s Northwest Side.
Mika Lee Cannon, 22, is accused of shooting and killing 18-year-old Kiara Nelson on Saturday morning during a domestic violence altercation with Nelson’s sister at the Karric Place of Dublin apartments on Columbus’ Northwest Side.
He was taken into custody on Tuesday and has an arraignment scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to Franklin County Municipal court records.
A probable cause affidavit filed by Columbus police states that Cannon was in an ongoing domestic dispute on Friday with Ariana Nelson, the mother of his child. At some point during the altercation, Cannon chased Nelson to the bathroom and proceeded to physically assault her, including choking her, pinning her against the tub, and pulling on her shirt and arms, court records state.
Ariana’s sister, Kiara Nelson, intervened and tried to stop Cannon from assaulting her sister. All three of them eventually separated, and Cannon left the home but returned a short time later, the affidavit states.
Sometime later, all four people, including Ariana’s 2-year-old child, went to Walmart to buy a replacement shower curtain because Cannon had broken the one in the bathroom during his assault on Ariana, court records allege. Ariana had also purchased makeup to cover up the injuries on her neck so that nobody at her job would ask questions about her injuries, the records state.
Eventually, Ariana and Cannon went to their separate jobs in Columbus. Court records say that when Ariana finished work, she called Cannon and the conversation escalated into another argument over the phone.
Ariana, her 2-year-old daughter, and Kiara Nelson were all at the apartment when Ariana noticed that Cannon was on his way home from work because she was tracking him on her phone. Kiara placed a couch in front of the door in an attempt to stop Cannon from getting in. When Cannon arrived, he was “angry” and pushed his way past the couch through the front door, court records state.
Court records say that Kiara was trying to protect Ariana by holding onto Cannon by wrapping her legs and arms around him. Ariana ran to her bedroom to grab her cellphone, and while she was in there, she heard a gunshot, then heard her sister scream “Mika!” court records state.
When Ariana returned to the living room, she told investigators she saw Kiara on the floor suffering from a gunshot wound and Cannon fleeing out the front door. Medics transported Kiara Nelson to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, where she died Saturday morning at 1:51 a.m.
@ShahidMeighan
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mika Cannon charged with murder in Columbus domestic violence shooting
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