Dayton homicides 2011-2016
2011: 36
2012: 27
2013: 27
2014: 27
2015: 29
2016: 16, through June 26
A homicide victim found in an alley on Saturday means June has moved into a tie for the second-deadliest month in Dayton the past five years.
Six people in Dayton have been homicide victims this June, tying August 2015 and February 2013 for the second most in a month. Those are the most homicides in a month in the city since seven in July 2011.
Overall, Dayton has had 16 homicides in 2016, putting the city on pace for more than 30 this year. That would be the highest total since 36 in 2011. In the 12 months from July 2015 through June 16, there have been 35 homicides in Dayton.
Dayton police declined to comment about the month’s homicide total, nor would police provide any update on Saturday’s killing or say if a shooting Sunday in that same neighborhood was related.
Trotwood saw its sixth gun-related homicide of 2016 during the weekend — after a man driving was shot and crashed his car — eclipsing that city’s 2015 total of five. A separate vehicular homicide suspect died in a crash that killed another person.
“All of these are not random-type shootings,” Trotwood police Deputy Chief John Porter said Monday. “They’re all interpersonal-related type shootings.”
William Jamar White, 27, of Dayton was found dead Saturday in Kenwood Avenue alley from several gunshots to the torso, police said.
Dayton police Sgt. Creigee Coleman said White was found with illegal narcotics in his pocket. “At this point we are assuming that this is possibly a drug deal gone bad or some type of illegal activity,” Coleman said.
Investigators learned that neighbors heard gunshots around 2 a.m. Saturday but did not report it to police.
In September 2015, White was convicted of trafficking cocaine and sentenced to six months to be served concurrently with a case from Franklin County, court records show.
Kenneth Atwater Jr., 28, of Dayton, was pronounced dead at the scene after he was shot in the head or neck area before crashing his vehicle on Trotwood's Salem Avenue on Sunday morning, police said.
Another occupant of the vehicle, a female who was seriously injured, was taken at Miami Valley Hospital after the crash at about 2:15 a.m. Sunday. Porter said Monday that the woman was still in critical condition.
Porter said two vehicles were traveling south on Salem when an unknown altercation occurred between the occupants in both vehicles. Witnesses told investigators gunshots were fired from one vehicle into the victim’s vehicle moments before the vehicle crashed.
Porter said indications are that the victim and the suspect knew each other and that police said they have identified a person of interest. Porter said anyone with pertinent information can call Trotwood police at (937) 854-3988 or Crimestoppers at (937) 222-STOP (7867).
“We deal with a lot of the same individuals between Dayton and Trotwood just by the mere virtue that our borders are so close and inter-weaved,” Porter said, adding that the city’s two double-fatals and the latest killing are drug-related. “We did recover a significant amount of drugs from the wrecked vehicle.”
Court records indicate Atwater had convictions for breaking and entering, theft, carrying concealed weapons and receiving stolen property.
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