Teen Charged With Murder in May Migration Lane Killing of Samir Mayes

A 17-year-old has been charged with murder in the May shooting death of Samir Mayes on Columbus’ Northeast Side, the second person charged in a killing Columbus police say grew out of an attempted car theft, according to a Nov. 5 media release from the Columbus Division of Police reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Detectives arrested the juvenile, took him to police headquarters for an interview, and then took him to the Franklin County Juvenile Intervention Center, police said in the release reported by The Columbus Dispatch.

The shooting happened just before 4:15 a.m. on May 20, when officers responded to the 4000 block of Migration Lane on a report of a shooting, Columbus police said. Officers found Mayes, 22, suffering from a gunshot wound, and a woman who had minor injuries in connection with the shooting, according to police accounts reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Mayes was taken to Mount Carmel East Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:55 a.m., police said.

The Dispatch is not identifying the 17-year-old, it reported, pending a probable cause finding that would automatically transfer the case from juvenile court to adult charges in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. That single procedural step will decide whether the second suspect’s name, courtroom, and potential penalties look like a juvenile case or an adult murder prosecution, and it is the next decision readers should watch for.

The first arrest in the case came more than five months after the shooting. Amari Cross, 19, was arrested Oct. 26 by a Columbus police SWAT team in connection with the shooting, police said in accounts reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Cross has been charged with murder and was in custody at the Franklin County jail after his arrest, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

According to city homicide detectives in the criminal complaint, reported by The Columbus Dispatch in October, several suspects were trying to steal the woman’s vehicle when she and Mayes stepped onto a balcony and spotted them, and the suspects began shooting at them and struck Mayes. The suspects fled the scene after the shooting, detectives said in the complaint reported by The Columbus Dispatch.

Investigators built the case in part from video and records. After reviewing video footage, detectives identified the vehicle the suspects fled in as a Toyota RAV4 that had been stolen in Groveport a couple of hours before the shooting, detectives said in the criminal complaint reported by The Columbus Dispatch. In Cross’s case, detectives also cited cellphone tower records placing a phone in South Linden, Groveport, and on the Northeast Side at the times the crimes were committed, and a window-breaking device bearing DNA, according to the complaint as reported by The Columbus Dispatch.

The timeline shows how long a homicide case can run before it reaches a courtroom. The RAV4 was stolen in Groveport in the early hours of May 20, 2026; the Migration Lane shooting followed before 4:15 a.m., and Mayes was pronounced dead at 4:55 a.m. The first arrest did not come until Oct. 26, when a SWAT team took Cross into custody, and the second charge was announced Nov. 5 — nearly six months after the night Mayes died.

What we know — and what we’re still waiting on

What we know is confirmed by Columbus police through The Columbus Dispatch: two suspects are now charged with murder, Mayes died of a gunshot wound after the attempted theft, and the juvenile suspect is in the Franklin County Juvenile Intervention Center. Police said in their accounts that several suspects were involved in the shooting, which leaves open whether detectives expect further arrests. What we are still waiting on is the juvenile court’s probable cause decision, any statement from police about additional suspects, and the next court dates that will set the pace of both prosecutions.

For the Northeast Side neighborhood around Migration Lane, the case has been an open wound since May — a man killed, police say, after stepping onto a balcony while a car theft was underway below. Columbus court cases involving police work have drawn close attention this fall, including the probation sentence for a former Columbus officer in the Donovan Lewis shooting death, and the Migration Lane prosecution now joins that list of cases residents will be following through Franklin County courts.

What happens next is procedural and consequential. The 17-year-old’s case goes first to a probable cause finding in juvenile court, which will determine whether he is tried as an adult in Common Pleas Court, while Cross’s murder case continues through the Franklin County courts. Both suspects are charged, not convicted, and are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. NewsForce247 will update this story when police or the courts announce the next step.

Photo: Becker1999, CC BY