“There were two groups of subjects that were fighting, and apparently shots were fired,” said Dayton police Lt. Gregg Gaby. “The people who think the way to solve a feud is through gun violence … that’s got to stop.”
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Police arrested Dylan Angel, 18, and Jason Tidwell, 18, at the site of the shooting. Jail records show Angel was arrested on suspicion of murder, while Tidwell’s jail record lists tampering with evidence and having weapons under disability.
Gaby confirmed a family relationship between some of the parties, and multiple social media accounts list Tidwell as Mackenna’s brother. Those same social media accounts show Angel and Tidwell had been friends, but Gaby said they were on opposite sides of this disturbance, citing a feud between groups. Angel attended Chaminade-Julienne High School, where he played football, but school officials say he withdrew in January.
Mackenna’s death is the latest in an ugly trend: On March 12, an innocent bystander was killed by a bullet on Huffman Avenue after a bar fight; on April 17 a woman was injured in her Germantown Street kitchen when shots were fired outside; and back in September 2016, an innocent Kettering teen was killed after his friends argued with another group.
Mackenna had just finished her freshman year at Carroll High School. Carroll Principal Matt Sableski called the shooting a “truly awful” event, saying Kronenberger was “a nice kid” who had attended grade school at Eastmont, a Dayton Public School that backs up to the Carroll campus. He said Mackenna “will be missed dearly” by everyone at Carroll.
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Dr. Christina O’Malley, the mentor for McKenna and others in her smaller “student family,” called Mackenna “a very joyful, positive person who contributed greatly to the community.”
At 1 a.m. Wednesday, a sobbing 911 caller told dispatchers that someone had been shot, as multiple people were crying and yelling in the background. Later Wednesday, an apparent bullet hole was visible in the front window that neighbors say was Mackenna’s bedroom.
Neighbor Cheyenne Morningstar says she has known Mackenna since she was a baby, describing her as sweet and shy.
“It’s too young, it’s really too young,” she said.
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Gaby said it is possible more people could be charged, or that Angel and Tidwell could face other charges. Montgomery County Court records show Tidwell was also convicted June 20 of having weapons under disability in connection with a March 12 arrest. Charges of using weapons while intoxicated and criminal trespass were dismissed, and he was sentenced to five years of probation.
Tidwell has posted social media pictures of himself with a gun in his waistband multiple times in the past year, once writing, “in case some **** go down, I gotta keep my rocket.”
Gaby said the neighborhood in question – two blocks from the Belmont Business District on Watervliet Avenue – is usually “fairly peaceful.”
“It’s definitely frustrating for the police department and the community at large,” Gaby said. “These are senseless deaths.”
Mike Campbell contributed to this report.
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