Kettering Schools Superintendent Scott Inskeep said additional counselors, security and police were at Fairmont High School on Tuesday. He said about 30 students talked about the incident that left 16-year-old Ronnie Bowers critically-injured from a bullet wound to the head.
“There is no ZIP code that is protected from these types of issues,” Inskeep said.
Three of the four suspects — ages 16, 16 and 14 — appeared in the Montgomery County Juvenile Court on felonious assault charges, but “no one has been charged as the shooter,” juvenile Judge Anthony Capizzi’s office said.
This newspaper is not identifying the juveniles by name at this time.
A fourth suspect, 18-year-old Miles Heizer, “will be released pending further investigation,” according to a statement from Kettering Police Chip Protsman Tuesday afternoon. Police and prosecutors offered no additional details regarding the release of Heizer, a 2016 Fairmont graduate.
Capizzi said the three juveniles will remain in custody until a Sept. 27 court date because they are “charged with heinous crimes” with a “high-level of notoriety.”
“I expect significant additional filings on this matter,” Capizzi said.
The second-degree felony charges say the suspects “knowingly did cause serious physical harm” to Bowers. One of the 16-year-olds also faces a tampering with evidence charge for trying to hide a firearm, Capizzi said.
All of the suspects and the victim are students of Kettering City Schools. Bowers’ family could not be reached for comment late Tuesday, but a family friend said earlier that there was no improvement in the teen’s condition.
Heizer had been in custody since early Monday on a felonious assault charge.
At the time of the shooting, Heizer was out on bond in connection with a felonious assault arrest in March. The police report from that incident says he jumped out of a car at a traffic light, walked up to another car and hit a former classmate in the face with a baseball bat.
Court records show that the case was bound over to a grand jury months ago, but Heizer waived the right to speedy proceedings, and there have been no filings in the case since April.
Protsman said the shooting had its roots in a weeks-long dispute between teenagers who were at Alter High School’s festival Sunday, where the issue flared again. He said one group of four teens drove away, trying to avoid the altercation, but the four suspects followed in another car, blocking them in a driveway on Willowdale Avenue, three blocks from AlterFest.
Protsman said a physical altercation took place, and Bowers — who was trying to drive away — was shot once in the back of the head. Protsman said Bowers was an innocent bystander.
Kettering response
Dan Von Handorf, Kettering’s director of student services and former high school principal, said students were in shock and disbelief, and he urged them to share any concerns they have about student safety. The shooting came seven months after another Fairmont student, Antoine Jones, was killed in a Trotwood shooting that police said was drug-related.
Heizer was a close friend of Jones, according to his social media accounts, but Von Handorf said school officials don’t have any information that the two incidents are connected.
Kettering’s school board meeting Tuesday night had only one person in the audience who was not a district employee or media member. Board members asked for a moment of silence.
>>>Kettering school board meeting Tuesday night
Cindy McCullough, a parent of two Kettering students, said parents need to prepare their children, especially at an age where they don’t always make good decisions.
“I think what we really need to do as parents is try to teach our children common sense,” she said. “Even though we lived in an age where we were safe (as students), it doesn’t exist anymore.”
Some students mentioned on social media that they were shaken up by the incident. Jace Roberts, a junior at Kettering’s alternative school, said he feels safe at school, but questioned some students’ attitudes.
“Kids these days think they’re untouchable, can’t get in trouble,” Roberts said. “Think they can carry guns around and they’re not going to shoot nobody, but they did.”
WHIO-TV’s Malik Perkins contributed to this report.
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