RELATED: Trotwood double homicide one of two local incidents in a week
Trotwood police did not return messages seeking further comment on the latest two homicides or the 2018 total. The six homicides this year are three times as many as in 2017, when there were two.
Trotwood had 11 homicides in 2011 and six in 2015, according to the coroner’s stats. Those numbers include all homicides whether they were ruled justifiable or not.
Trotwood police said they responded at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday after the manager of an overnight auto repair shop on Salem Avenue called 911 to say he had shot someone who tried to rob him and his employee.
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Trotwood police Capt. Dan Heath said the manager returned to the business with an employee and their car was approached by two individuals. Heath said that when the employee got out of the car, one of the individuals pointed a gun at him, and the manager, whose identity has not been released, shot the suspect.
“I just shot a guy,” the manager said during the 911 call. “He robbed my workers and pulled a gun on us. I pulled the trigger before he did.”
Police said the second suspect fled the scene on foot but officers but did not find him. The suspect who was shot was transported to Miami Valley Hospital, where he died, Heath said.
RELATED: Trotwood’s 11 homicide in 2016 puts murder rate near nation’s worst
The business owner told officers that the previous day two suspicious people were at a gas station near the business, but they later fled when police were called, Heath said.
That followed the shooting incident on Tuesday, which caused police to respond to the Woodland Hills Apartments around 12:40 a.m. Wednesday after family and friends, who said they hadn’t heard from the victim in 24 hours, found the man dead in the apartment.
“While checking on him, they found the door unlocked and the victim lying on the floor deceased,” Heath said.
In a three-minute call to 911, a caller who says he was Hines’ brother repeatedly told the dispatcher that his brother was dead after a shooting.
“I can’t even talk right now,” the caller said while another individual screamed and cried in the background.
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The caller told the 911 dispatcher that the victim was tied up, but Trotwood police declined to confirm that.
No arrests in either case have been announced by Trotwood police.
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