Nine June homicides
June 6: William A. Sarver, 57, was found shot to death on West Riverview Avenue. Deonte Snowden was arrested but no criminal case has been filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. Snowden doesn't show up in the jail mug database.
June 6: Chauncey Brooks, 16, was shot and killed by an elderly woman who said Brooks and two others were breaking into her house on Oakridge Drive. The case will be reviewed to determine if it was a justified homicide.
June 14: Robert Hildebrand, 47, was shot and killed at the Terrace View Apartments on North Smithville Road. Jason T. Shontee was charged with murder and other charges.
June 17: Bryan Q. Lewis, 36, was shot and killed by a man who alleged Lewis broke into his Lindale Avenue residence and threatened him. The case will be reviewed to determine if it was a justified homicide.
June 17: Kevin R. Anderson, 58, was found shot to death outside what police describe as a "boot joint" on Home Avenue.
June 20: Elonda S. Lewis, 45, was found shot to death in her residence on Victoria Avenue. Dennis A. Baker was arrested but no criminal case has been filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. Baker doesn't show up in the jail mug database.
June 26: William Jamar White, 27, was found shot to death in an alley near Kenwood Avenue.
June 27: Arven A. Hunt, 70, was found shot to death on the porch of a residence on West Stewart Street. Police said they would not yet release any suspect information.
June 29: Travis A. Smith, 37, was found shot in his home on Patton Avenue. He died at a hospital on his birthday. Police arrested Nina M. Davis, 35, for murder. She is being held in the Montgomery County Jail.
Dayton’s nine homicides in June make it the deadliest month since police began tracking monthly numbers in 2001, and community leaders say the killings may be symptomatic of societal issues such as drug abuse, poverty and a lack of positive role models.
Two of the cases could be ruled self-defense, but with 19 homicides in the first half of 2016 the city is on pace for its most homicides since 2009, when there were 40.
“The Dayton Police Department shares the community’s concern over a recent increase in homicides. This is a challenge other major cities in Ohio are also facing,” said a statement issued Friday by the city. “Dayton homicide detectives are investigating the possibility of any connections in these cases. However, at this time there is no evidence linking the incidents.”
The statement pointed out that two homicides likely are domestic-related incidents, two involved persons reportedly shot in the commission of another crime, and that three homicides have resulted in arrests.
“We had a goal of a 50 percent reduction in the homicide rate in the year of 2016 versus the previous year,” said Derrick Foward, President of the Dayton Unit NAACP. “With what has transpired in the past month, it’s not putting us in a very good situation.”
The city said Dayton’s violent crimes of murder, robbery, rape and aggravated assault are down 8 percent when compared year-to-date with 2015.
“The Department has assigned directed patrols to affected areas based on data analysis and intelligence gathered by detectives,” the statement said. “The Dayton Police Department will continue to work with the community to form partnerships to help prevent and solve crimes and enhance neighborhood safety.”
Drugs and guns
In May, Dayton was named by ArrestRecords.com as the top city for drug overdose deaths. Law enforcement officials say that with illegal opioids come drug dealers, users, crime, weapons and homicides.
“It’s very disheartening to see that a lot of gun violence is centered around drug activity,” Foward said. “To know that we are experiencing loss of life for no good, justifiable reason is unacceptable.”
Four boys aged 12 to 16 recently were arrested along with two adults for planning to break into Vandalia Tactical to steal weapons.
Katy Crosby, executive director at the Dayton Human Relations Council, said young people without positive role models in a depressed community often turn to negative role models.
“If you are being exposed to violence on a daily basis or somebody is talking to you negatively, all of that impacts your psyche,” Crosby said. “Then you have young people that we have talked to who feel like, ‘Look, I don’t even know if I’m going to make it to 18.’ So they have this ‘you only live once mentality,’ so it’s like whatever.”
Foward said parenting is key to stem the next generation of violent criminals.
“We call upon the fathers and the mothers of these young men and women who are committing these homicides for them to speak with their family members,” he said. “To let them know that this isn’t the way.”
Crosby said community standards need to change so violence isn’t tolerated and police are trusted.
“We have to improve the relationship between the community and the police so that community members don’t take matters into their own hands, but that they allow the police department to do their job and make our community safer,” Crosby said.
"I always tell people that community-police relations and violence is symptomatic of other issues that are happening in the community. If you have a depressed economy and you have people that are trying to survive, it correlates directly with other activities that may not necessarily be positive."
Crosby said better police-community relations might chip away at the perception that aiding in prosecution of violent crimes is “snitching” on a neighbor. To report crime, community members can call (937) 222-STOP or (937) 333-COPS.
“If you’re not a part of what is going on and you’re really trying to create safe communities, it’s not snitching and people really do need to get out of that mentality,” Crosby said. “And we need to do a better job of making sure that we’re helping people to feel safe when they report things anonymously.”
Model for training
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office has had its issues with community relations, but it has become a model for Ohio police training. A video about the Improving Modern Police And Community Trust (IMPACT) committee started by Sheriff Phil Plummer is part of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy's new course designed to help improve race relations.
Foward and Crosby both say becoming used to violence starts early, and that discipline and more community programs are needed — along with hope.
“That’s a really difficult thing to do when every day you’re seeing the blighted properties, you’re seeing violence on a daily basis, you don’t feel like you have the parental support, you’re not getting the proper nutrition,” Crosby said. “It really does take a village and all of us play a role, from the grassroots level all the way up to the government level.”
Dayton recently was awarded $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to remake the distressed DeSoto Bass Courts and Hilltop Homes public housing projects and surrounding neighborhood into a mixed-income area with more economic opportunities along with better schools and after-school programs.
“We know when they have all of those community assets in place, they have a much better opportunity to succeed,” Crosby said.
Foward called for a truce among the groups engaged in drugs and violence.
“The killing is senseless from the standpoint of money and status; money and status does not equal the value of a human life,” Foward said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
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