Officers shoot, kill suspected Ohio gang ringleader

COLUMBUS (AP) — Authorities say the suspected ringleader of a gang with two-decade-old roots in Columbus was shot and killed as officers tipped to his whereabouts tried to arrest him.

Defendant Jermonte Fletcher had been a fugitive for more than a year after his indictment in December 2013 on multiple charges of drug dealing and illegal weapons possession.

Authorities said Fletcher was killed this morning on the south side of Columbus during a shoot-out with members of a fugitive task force trying to arrest him. An officer was injured and hospitalized in stable condition.

Prosecutors say the Short North Posse, dating to the 1990s, distributed drugs including crack cocaine throughout Ohio and in other states, and recruited individuals from elsewhere to join the gang’s operations in central Ohio.