“She got caught in the crossfire? Did she get shot?” Davis, held by sheriff’s deputies, asked reporters about a woman he called his significant other. “Is she OK? She’s not OK? What’s wrong with her?”
Davis said he used his own gun during the incident and that he didn’t know what he was thinking. The former Cumberland University football player — who was discharged from the U.S. Marines after 18 months and demoted to private — was found Tuesday morning hiding in a camper at a property on Brookville Phillipsburg Road.
Just before he entered the jail, Davis sobbed and said: I’m so sorry. I’m so ashamed.” Davis’ booking information said he was being held for murder but that formal charges had not been approved.
Brookville police Chief Douglas Jerome said Edds remains in “good spirits” and in stable condition after being shot in the arm. “(Edds’) family would appreciate privacy in this matter as he recovers,” Jerome said Tuesday afternoon.
Jerome said Edds and fellow officer Frank Graci — owner of The Flying Pizza in Dayton — were on paid administrative leave per departmental policy.
Both officers discharged their service weapons during a complex series of events that began Monday evening with an attempted traffic stop by an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper on Interstate 70.
This news organization is awaiting the fulfillment of several open records requests, including OSHP cruiser cam video and incident report from the attempted traffic stop and the crash of a white Cadillac SUV at about 9:40 p.m. Monday.
Other records requests include the police officers’ personnel records, surveillance footage from the Speedway and Wendy’s near where the Cadillac crashed and any pertinent 911 calls.
Jerome said the sheriff’s office is conducting both the criminal and internal investigations into the officer-involved shooting, Brookville’s second in Jerome’s 21-year tenure.
The OSHP’s Dayton Post said a trooper tried to stop the Cadillac as it headed east on I-70 near the Preble-Montgomery County Line. The driver did not stop and the trooper ended the pursuit because of excessive speeds, according to the patrol.
The Cadillac exited the highway at Arlington Road, but the trooper was not able to follow because of traffic. After exiting the highway, the Cadillac with Tennessee plates crashed at Wendy’s at the corner at Upper Lewisburg Salem Road and Arlington Road, but the trooper was not tailing the vehicle at the time, according to the patrol.
Dispatchers began receiving 911 calls that a white SUV crashed into a tree-line near the Wendy’s. A woman was reported to dispatchers as running from the scene, and possibly trying to flag down other vehicles.
Police located the Cadillac SUV in the tree-line, and asked for the fire department to respond. The Cadillac was reported found with heavy damage, but the responding officer was unsure if anyone was injured, or still inside the vehicle.
One responding officer reported locating a woman running through an old BP lot and toward Speedway, according to the Brookville police scanner traffic.
As police were looking for the female, shots rang out at the Speedway on Arlington Road. “There were shots exchanged,” Jerome said Tuesday morning.
An officer then radioed for medics for two people who had been shot. Radio traffic indicated shots were fired from a dark colored SUV — later described as a blue Subaru Forester with Tennessee plates.
Edds was transported to Miami Valley Hospital amid a convoy of police cruisers. Hospital police officers stood guard outside the complex throughout the night and early morning.
Around 6:50 a.m., officers located the Subaru in a pond near a church at the intersection of Brookville Phillipsburg Road and Access Road. A K-9 tracked Davis to an unlocked camper at a nearby private residence in Clay Twp., where authorities took him into custody without incident around 7:45 a.m.
“I saw them come through the backyard with the dog and go in front of the barn and the dog went crazy and they found him in the camper,” said Betty Armstrong, who owns the camper and had heard about the nearby shooting “So, yeah it was a little bit scary but you know, you still don’t think it’s gonna end up in your yard.”
Davis — whose face was dirty and scratched as he walked toward the jail — told this newspaper and WHIO-TV he is a construction worker traveling to New York.
Davis was booted out of the U.S. Marines after 18 months and finished as a private, according to records provided to the Dayton Daily News by the corps.
Davis served from Nov. 18, 2012 until June 5, 2014 and his date of rank was changed to private on Feb. 25, 2014. His specialty was listed as a field artillery cannoneer and his last assignment was at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He was not deployed overseas.
“Conrad Davis’ premature discharge and rank at the time of discharge are indicative of the fact that the character of his service was incongruent with Marine Corps’ expectations and standards,” a Marines public affairs officer wrote in an email. “Due to the associated administrative processes, further details are not releasable.”
Davis told reporters that he was from Pensacola, Fla. A Facebook page indicates Davis went to Pace High School near Pensacola.
Davis played one season as an offensive lineman in football at Cumberland University, according to that school’s sports information director. Davis stayed in school for a little while after his playing days ended due to a back injury, according to the team’s coaching staff.
The sports information director said a coach indicated Davis’ father moved and worked in Cookeville, Tenn., which is about 45 minutes from Cumberland University.
Little information was available Tuesday about Sides. The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office did her autopsy Tuesday morning but did not release her official cause and manner of death.
A gofundme webpage was set up by a man identified as Jeff Sides, who wrote: “My sister passed away last night and I’m unable to pay for all the funeral expenses if you could help at all would help thank you and God bless.”