A Columbus police SWAT team arrested 16-year-old Jaycier Armstrong on Monday, November 9, ending a four-day public search for the teenager charged in the October 30 shooting that killed 18-year-old Aaliyah Chan on Columbus’ Southwest Side, according to a Columbus Division of Police media release reported by The Columbus Dispatch.
Armstrong faces charges of delinquency murder, aggravated robbery and felonious assault in connection with Chan’s death, The Columbus Dispatch reported. He was taken to the Franklin County Court of Domestic Relations to be processed and will then be held at the Franklin County Juvenile Intervention Center, police said in the release reported by The Dispatch. The charges are accusations, and Armstrong has not been convicted.
The shooting happened at about 7:45 p.m. on Friday, October 30, at a condominium in the 1000 block of Hardesty Place West, Columbus police said in their media releases. Officers who answered the gunfire call found one wounded person who told them a second person had also been shot in the condo’s basement, according to the police account reported by The Dispatch.
Chan was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:56 p.m., police said. Medics took the first victim to a hospital in critical condition, and a third victim drove to a hospital and was released after treatment, according to the police account reported by The Dispatch. Detectives believe the shooting stemmed from an attempted robbery, the Columbus Division of Police said in its homicide update on the case.
Chan was a 2026 graduate of Briggs High School in Columbus City Schools and had planned to attend cosmetology school at the Ohio State School of Cosmetology, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Her father, Paul Chan, told The Dispatch on November 3 that his daughter was at the condo while her boyfriend was getting a haircut when the shooting began, and that she was not the intended target. NewsForce247’s earlier coverage of the case, Columbus Police Identify Aaliyah Chan, 18, Killed in Southwest Side Shooting, followed the first days of the investigation.
The case moved in stages over the following days. Police publicly identified Chan as the victim first, and on November 5 the division’s homicide update identified Armstrong as the suspect, listing murder, aggravated robbery and felonious assault charges with a warrant on file. Detectives asked the community for help finding him, and as of November 6 he was still not in custody, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
That public phase of the search ended Monday with the SWAT arrest. Police have asked anyone with information about the October 30 shooting to contact the Columbus police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477, according to the division’s earlier releases reported by The Dispatch.
The Dispatch does not normally identify juvenile suspects before their cases are transferred to adult court, but it named Armstrong because detectives were asking for the community’s help in locating him, The Columbus Dispatch reported when the charges were announced on November 5. That appeal ran for four days before Monday’s arrest.
In the days after the shooting, support gathered around Chan’s family. A fundraiser for the family had raised more than $4,600 toward a $5,500 goal as of November 2, The Columbus Dispatch reported, and Columbus City Schools spokesman Mike Brown told The Dispatch that Chan had graduated from Briggs High School this past spring.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: Armstrong is in custody on delinquency murder, aggravated robbery and felonious assault charges, per the Columbus Division of Police; Chan, 18, was killed and two other people were wounded in the October 30 shooting, which detectives believe began as an attempted robbery, per police releases reported by The Columbus Dispatch. What we’re still waiting on: police have not released any statement describing where or how Monday’s arrest unfolded, whether anyone else is being sought in the shooting, or any court dates. Because Armstrong is 16 and charged in the juvenile system, later decisions about how his case proceeds rest with the Franklin County courts, and no ruling on that question has been announced.
Monday’s arrest was the second major Columbus court development of the day; in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, a Columbus man received 23 to 28.5 years in prison for a fatal Prairie Township beating.
What happens next: Armstrong will be processed through the Franklin County Court of Domestic Relations and held at the Juvenile Intervention Center, police said. His first court appearances and any decision on whether the case stays in juvenile court will come from the court, and this story will be updated when officials release those details.
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