COLUMBUS, Ohio – A 19-year-old man was in the Franklin County Jail early Thursday morning, charged with the shooting death of a man whose body was found in a car outside a North Side hotel Sunday.
Columbus SWAT officers arrested Anthony Monaco at Liberty Township address shortly before 1:00 Thursday morning on a murder charge stemming from the death of Dinkisra Mengistu, homicide detectives said.
Mengistu was shot in the upper body as he sat in the back seat of a friend’s car in the parking lot of the Hilton Doubletree Hotel, 175 Hutchinson Avenue, just before 12:30 a.m. Sunday, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A murder charge was filed against Monaco, 19, Wednesday and warrant was issued for his arrest.
Mengistu’s emigrated with his family from Ethiopia when he was in middle school and graduated from high school in Westerville in 2012.
Friends gathered at the school to remember him Sunday night.