A fourth man charged in connection with a drive-by shooting at a funeral on Columbus' Northeast Side in August has been ordered held on a $250,000 bond.
Sincear Cokes, 19, was arraigned Sept. 2 in Franklin County Municipal Court. He faces a total of 20 felony charges in connection with the Aug. 17 drive-by shooting at people exiting a church funeral service that wounded two people.
Three other men have previously been charged for their roles in the shooting, which police said involved gunmen in a stolen BMW and happened around 12:30 p.m. outside the Antioch Jordan Baptist Church, located at 1825 Woodland Park Ave. in the Argyle Park neighborhood.
Cokes faces a total of 20 felony charges in connection with the shooting, with 17 of them being for
felonious assault. The remaining three charges are for receiving stolen property, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, and carrying a concealed weapon with a dangerous ordnance enhancement attached.
According to a criminal complaint filed by detectives with the Columbus police Nonfatal Shoot Team, officers who were investigating the shooting later that evening observed one of the vehicles involved in the shooting in the 600 block of Gibbard Avenue. Officers allegedly saw Cokes get into the vehicle. Officers pulled the car over and recovered four guns and a BMW key.
After reviewing results from the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), detectives learned that the 9mm handgun that was recovered matched shell casings that were recovered from the drive-by shooting, according to the criminal complaint. Detectives also alleged that two separate witnesses said that the 9mm handgun belonged to Cokes and said that he was the front seat passenger in the stolen vehicle that was used in the shooting.
Cokes has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Sept. 11, according to court filings.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Fourth man faces 20 felony charges in Columbus drive-by funeral shooting
