Ra’Quwan Kilgore, age 29, a Black/African American male from Columbus, was found shot in the early morning light on Friday, July 18, 2025, after police were dispatched at 5:52 a.m. to the 300 block of South Guilford Avenue on the city’s west side. Officers discovered Ra’Quwan Kilgore suffering from a gunshot wound; medics rushed him to Grant Medical Center, where, despite hours of treatment, he was pronounced dead at 5:03 p.m. The block, just off Sullivant Avenue, filled with the hum of patrol cars and tape as detectives began working a case that, even in its first hours, carried the charged contours of a domestic dispute.
At the scene, an adult woman identified herself as the shooter and told officers she had fired in self-defense after being threatened by Ra’Quwan Kilgore. Detectives noted the early indications of domestic violence and began a careful reconstruction of the hours leading up to the gunfire, gathering statements and combing the front porch where a firearm was recovered, while the neighborhood absorbed the shock of a life lost just after dawn. In that initial window, police said she was cooperating and that no charges had yet been filed, a pause that underscored the complexity of the allegations and the need to test them against the evidence.
Weeks later, the investigation moved from uncertainty to accusation. After presenting the case to a Franklin County grand jury, prosecutors secured an indictment charging Courtney Grisby, 41, with murder in the death of Ra’Quwan Kilgore. On September 17, 2025, Columbus police arrested Courtney Grisby without incident and booked her into the Franklin County Jail. Investigators said their review confirmed domestic violence as the motive, shifting the narrative from an immediate claim of self-defense to a formally charged homicide that will be tested in court.
The arc of the case—dawn gunfire, a man’s final hours at the hospital, an on-scene admission, and a later arrest—left a paper trail of dates and decisions that will now define the legal fight to come. For Ra’Quwan Kilgore, age 29, the investigation’s milestones trace back to that July morning on South Guilford Avenue; for the accused, Courtney Grisby, the indictment marks the beginning of a courtroom reckoning that will determine responsibility for the death of Ra’Quwan Kilgore.
