Columbus police identify Hilliard man fatally shot on Northeast Side in dispute over woman

Columbus police have identified a Hilliard man whom they say was ambushed and killed Sunday amid an ongoing dispute with another man over a woman.

Andrew Stephens, 28, of Hilliard, was driving his vehicle Sunday morning in the 2400 block of Timbertrail Drive North on Columbus' Northeast Side when police say he was shot in the head by 33-year-old Erik Wagner of the Forest Park West neighborhood on the North Side.

Columbus Division of Fire medics transported Stephens in "extremely critical condition" to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, where he later died at 4:09 p.m., police said.

Court records say Stephens had driven a woman back to an apartment complex on the Northeast Side and when the woman got out of Stephens' vehicle, Wagner came out from behind a tree and shot at Stephens.

Stephens, who was struck, then crashed into two parked vehicles, police said.

"Mr. Wagner admitted to being there and was upset because (the woman) was his girlfriend and she was cheating on him with Mr. Stephens," Columbus police wrote in an affidavit.

The woman told police Wagner had been stalking her for the past month.

Police arrested Wagner later Sunday.

He had his first court appearance Monday morning, where he was ordered held in the Franklin County jail on a $1.5 million bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 31, court records show.

smeighan@dispatch.com

@ShahidMeighan

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police identify Hilliard man fatally shot on Northeast Side in dispute over woman