Man who was shot playing Pokemon Go: ‘I’m not even mad’

On Tuesday evening, a teenager on a bike approached 26-year-old Gregory Wheeler and asked to use his phone to call his mom, but instead of making the call, the boy pedaled away with Wheeler’s phone in hand.

Wheeler and his friend, Samantha Haub, ran after the boy, and called out to another group of teens to stop him.

That’s when the group surrounded Wheeler and Haub and assaulted them.

They fell to the ground, and the group started kicking them. When Wheeler scrambled to his feet and started to run away, he heard the words, “get the gun.”

Wheeler felt the bullets: one in each thigh and one in his right foot.

Now he’s recovering at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center.

“While I was laying on the ground bleeding, I was thinking that ‘I’m not even mad, really,’ ” Wheeler said. “I don’t feel like this is a personal thing that happened to me. These are just kids.”

Eventually Wheeler and Haub ran to a nearby house and called police, who later arrested 14-year-old David Michael Sparks, who was charged with two delinquency counts of aggravated robbery and one count of felonious assault.

Another suspect remains unidentified.

Even after the incident, Wheeler said he’ll continue to play Pokemon Go, just not at night anymore.

7/27/16: Pokemon GO player robbed, assaulted, shot in Columbus

A Columbus man was robbed and shot last night while playing the latest smartphone craze, Pokemon Go.

Gregory Wheeler and Samantha Haub were walking around looking for Pokemon to catch near a North Linden park when a juvenile approached them on a bike and asked to use Wheeler’s phone to call his mother.

When the juvenile fled with the phone, Wheeler pursued him, only to be hit in the head by another person and then shot three times in the lower body as he tried to run away.

About two hours later police arrested a 14-year-old boy and recovered a handgun.

Police are still looking for the second suspect.

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