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Latest homicide puts city one off last year’s total

Police say none of the recent deaths appear gang-related.

A Dayton Police officer investigates the car Monday, Nov. 9, where a man was shot multiple times and killed Monday morning in the 4700 block of Blueberry Avenue.

Staff photo by Ty Greenlees A Dayton Police officer investigates the car Monday, Nov. 9, where a man was shot multiple times and killed Monday morning in the 4700 block of Blueberry Avenue.

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Dayton records 3 homicides in 4 days

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By Lucas Sullivan, Staff Writer 12:09 AM Tuesday, November 10, 2009

DAYTON — Three killings in four days have pushed the city’s homicides to 36 this year, just one off the pace of last year’s total.

The city has averaged 32 homicides since 2004, according to FBI and Dayton Police Department data.

The latest, and arguably most bizarre, was the ambush-style shooting death of Cornelius Maxwell Jr., 40, Monday, Nov. 9, police said.

A man holding an AK-47 approached Maxwell on foot about 6 a.m. while Maxwell was warming up his car to go to work, witnesses and police said.

Maxwell’s homicide comes on the heels of a Friday shootout at Moe’s Fish and Chicken, 4043 Free Pike, where Chad DeWitt, 23, was shot in the torso and died, police said.

DeWitt might have been trying to rob Charles E. Taylor, 38, at the restaurant when Taylor pulled out a gun and shot him, Lt. Patrick Welsh said.

Taylor has a conceal-carry permit, but police are trying to determine if he was legally allowed to carry the gun inside the restaurant.

Welsh said it appears Taylor was acting in self-defense, but the case will still be presented to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office for possible charges, Welsh said.

Both handguns used were recovered at the scene, police said.

No weapons were recovered near the stabbing death of John R. Morgan Jr., 36, in the 1900 block of Grand Avenue early Friday.

Morgan collapsed and died outside on apartment complex about 4 a.m. after he was stabbed once in the neck, police said. There is little known about the motive or suspects in Morgan’s death, police said.

He was a known drug dealer, according to police reports.

None of the recent homicides have been gang-related, police said. That is somewhat unusual considering at least half the city’s homicides in recent years can be traced to some kind of gang activity, police said.

Anyone with information about the slayings is urged to call 333-COPS.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2494 or lsullivan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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