Related Reports from Columbus Dispatch

MOM KILLED DURING BOTCHED CARJACKING
SUSPECT SOUGHT IN NORTH SIDE SHOOTING

Date: Friday, November 19, 1999
Section: NEWS
Page: 06C
Byline: Matthew Marx
Source: Dispatch Staff Reporter

A Chinese immigrant who moved to Columbus several years ago in search of a better life died in a North Side shooting yesterday afternoon.

Columbus police were looking for the gunman who killed Xiaoying Wu during a carjacking attempt behind her apartment complex.

Wu, 37, of 680 Riverview Drive in the Colony Square Apartments was accosted as she was getting into the passenger seat of her friend's car about 1:40 p.m. in the rear parking lot of the complex.

She and her friend, whom police did not identify, were on their way to shop for groceries when a man jumped into the back seat of the car and pointed a silver handgun at them, homicide detective Mike McCann said.

Police think the gunman wanted the 11-year-old sedan because he didn't take the women's purses, which were within his grasp the car, McCann said.

"I can only assume he panicked, shot her and had to run,'' he said.

Wu was struck in the neck, although investigators were uncertain whether she was shot while in the car or while trying to flee, McCann said.

She staggered into a courtyard the complex and collapsed.

A neighbor dialed 911 after hearing gunshots. Wu was taken to Riverside Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly before 2 p.m.

She is survived by her husband, Baocheng Pan, a graduate assistant in the Chemistry Department at Ohio State University, and their 6-year-old son, who wasn't identified.

Pan was at OSU when the shooting occurred.

The couple's son was in a group of elementary schoolchildren a bus dropped off near the apartment complex while police were searching the area. Friends watched the boy yesterday afternoon until his father arrived home.

MAN ARRAIGNED IN SHOOTING DEATH
Date: Sunday, November 21, 1999
Section: NEWS
Page: 05D

Tyson A. Brooks, 18, was arraigned yesterday in Franklin County Municipal Court on a charge of aggravated murder in the shooting death of a North Side woman.

Brooks is accused of shooting to death Xiaoying Wu during what Columbus police have described as a possible carjacking attempt Thursday afternoon behind her apartment complex.