kali9/iStock(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — A school bus driver was stabbed to death by two people on his own front doorstep in an alleged murder-for-hire plot concocted by a former roommate.
John Clinedinst, a bus driver for Ohio’s Columbus City school system, was discovered by a roommate who called 911, according to a release from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
Next door neighbor Gene Chaffin, who also saw the body, said on Tuesday morning that people in the neighborhood actually mistook the crime scene for Halloween decorations, according to ABC’s Columbus affiliate WSYX.
“You know how they put out skeletons and that kind of thing,” said Chaffin describing his confusion before he got close to the crime scene. “I walked up to the stoop and I could see where he had bled out on the right side, blood all over his back, down on the stoop, through the rug that was there.”
Three people have been arrested in connection with Clinedinst’s murder. Tarayle Glick, 19; Donte Slash, 23; and Clinedinst’s former roommate, 52-year-old Abraham Shears, who was kicked out of the same house about a month ago and allegedly plotted the murder.
Shears and Clinedinst lived in the home with two other women but the landlord allegedly kicked Shears and another woman out of the premises about a month ago, according to investigators.
“There was always constant turmoil and the sheriff’s department was out here several times because of him,” said Chaffin of Shears.
According to a sworn affidavit filed by the sheriff’s office and obtained by CBS station WBNS, Slash and Glick allegedly waited outside Clinedinst’s home at about 3:30 a.m., when the victim would typically leave to go to work.
Glick then allegedly used a flashlight to blind Clinedinst before Slash stabbed him several times. Both men then fled the scene of the crime.
Shears allegedly offered Glick and Slash an undisclosed amount of money and pay for their travel to California if they killed Clinedinst, according to the affidavit.
Security cameras mounted on the front of the house but they were not working at the time of the attack and there is no surveillance footage, detectives told WSYX.
Glick and Slash face charges of murder. Shears is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, police said.
Columbus City Schools Director of Communications Jacqueline Bryant released a statement to WSYX.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Clinedinst family during this difficult time. Bus drivers such as Mr. Clinedinst do more than just transport students safely to and from school. They are the first to greet students as they head to school each day, and extend a positive school climate beyond the classroom. It’s the power of those short morning interactions that can set the tone for a child’s day,” read the statement.
The community is still in shock over Clinedinst’s murder.
“I just can’t believe somebody had that kind of anger to viciously attack a person and kill him,” a neighbor said.
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