Joshua Williams, 46, a Black/African American man, was found mortally wounded just after midnight on June 30, 2025, in a parking lot off the 3100 block of Delta Marine Drive on Columbus’s southeast side near Gender Road by the Reynoldsburg line. Officers were dispatched around 12:20 a.m. on reports of shots fired; when they arrived, they discovered Joshua Williams, 46, a male, suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at 12:46 a.m. by responding medical personnel.
Early that week, investigators released his identity and asked the public for tips as homicide detectives worked to piece together what happened in the quiet industrial stretch by the diesel company, where the night’s stillness had been cracked by gunfire.
Two days later, police moved from unanswered questions to an arrest. On July 2, 2025, Eric Powell, 44, was taken into custody and charged with murder in the killing of Joshua Williams, 46, a male. Authorities said the shooting unfolded in the same Delta Marine Drive lot where officers had first found the victim, and they offered few details about what sparked the confrontation. Powell was booked into the Franklin County jail, and local outlets reported that he appeared in court, where a judge set bond at $2 million as detectives continued to investigate the circumstances surrounding the gunfire.
Over the following days, the case filtered through neighborhood news feeds and city bulletins, with brief notices marking the fact of the arrest and the charge but little in the way of motive or a narrative connecting the men before that night. Police statements emphasized that the investigation into the death of Joshua Williams, 46, a male, remained active, even after the arrest, and they urged anyone who had been near Delta Marine Drive in the minutes around 12:20 a.m. to come forward. Community memorial pages likewise recorded his name and date, preserving the stark essentials of a life cut short while the courts took up the question of guilt.
