Triple slaying suspect charged with 10 counts of murder

Muhammad Shabazz Ali, 61, is accused of fatally shooting three people.

The man accused of killing three people on Wednesday in Dayton faces 28 charges, including 10 murder counts, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.

Muhammad Shabazz Ali, 61, is accused of shooting to death Tammy Cox, 53, Michael D. Cox, 25, and Jasper Taylor, 74, at 35 Oxford Ave. on Wednesday. A three-prosecutor panel met earlier Friday to discuss charges against Ali, who is being held in Montgomery County Jail.

A prosecutor’s office spokeswoman said the 28 counts included: four for aggravated murder, six for murder, six for aggravated burglary, two for kidnapping, eight for felonious assault and one each for having weapons under disability and failure to comply with the order of an officer.

The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office listed multiple gunshot wounds for the cause of death for Tammy Cox and Jasper Taylor. Paperwork was not complete on Michael Cox late Friday afternoon.

Including a separate killing on Friday near Salem Avenue, Dayton has had 25 homicides so far in 2016. Dayton had 27 in all of 2014 and 29 in all of 2015.

A neighbor of Ali’s said she’d seen several arguments between him and Tammy Cox.

“When he first moved here, he was a really nice guy,” said Erin Buck, who said Ali would mow people’s yards without being asked. “He always helped people a lot, but I did see his interaction with (Tammy Cox). They’d argue sometimes. She’d come out crying and end up getting on a bus … take off walking.”

Buck said her daughter saw Tammy Cox leave Ali’s house upset on Wednesday morning.

Buck said Ali was alternatively friendly or uncommunicative with neighbors. She said she noticed a difference in his behavior after she said he recently hurt himself trimming a tree while doing odd jobs.

“He’d say, ‘I’m still here, but I’m not doing good, I’m not doing good at all,’ ” Buck said, adding that a nurse was visiting Ali nearly every day. “My little girl cried because (Tammy Cox) was a very, very nice person.”

Ali went to Day-Mont Behavioral Health Care on Wednesday morning and was throwing chairs and repeatedly yelling, “I want my medication!” according to 911 calls from the facility.

Police sources said they took Ali to Grandview Medical Center for a mental evaluation and that he was released a few hours later.

At 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, Ali returned to Day-Mont carrying a handgun 10 minutes after police said Ali killed three people. Police apprehended Ali as he entered Day-Mont.

Ali served more than 20 years in prison for a 1988 voluntary manslaughter conviction in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court when he was known as Robert W. Ford.

“I knew he had done a long prison sentence so I kind of assumed it was for a homicide,” Buck said.

Ali, then known as Ford, was found guilty of stabbing to death Angela Richardson. Media and police reports indicated Richardson died at 3026 Wexford Place when she was stabbed in the back after an argument at about 3 a.m. on April 24, 1988.

Her sister told this news organization that Angela was 21 years old and 8 months pregnant with Ford’s child.

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