Columbus Police say a string of violent sexual assaults on the city’s West Side are likely related.
Police say a woman is in the hospital after she was shot in the stomach while she was raped in the Hilltop area yesterday.
She’s the third woman to report a violent rape on the West Side in a month. Authorities say she struggled with three male assailants in an alley on South Burgess Avenue, and they shot her.
Another woman was assaulted by three white men on Brehl Avenue in mid-April. A week later, another woman was raped by two men on Sullivant Avenue. Those women also were held at gunpoint.
All of the attacks happened around 4 o'clock in the morning. Police have asked the public for tips.