Man indicted for murder in ‘brutal’ Dayton double shooting

Montgomery County Courts Building. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

Credit: Jim Noelker

Credit: Jim Noelker

Montgomery County Courts Building. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

A man indicted for multiple counts of murder Wednesday is accused of shooting and killing two women last week inside a vehicle at a Dayton gas station, and then returning later to collect bullet casings and the victims’ cellphones.

Deante Taviann Holden, 32, is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court for four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and three counts of tampering with evidence. The murder and felonious assault charges each carry gun specifications that, if he is found guilty, would add time to any prison term at sentencing.

Deante Holden

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

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Credit: Montgomery County Jail

The charges are in connection to the Feb. 26 deaths of 38-year-old Felicia Brown and 44-year-old Michaela Daniels, both of Dayton.

“This is probably one of the most brutal murders that I’ve seen in my time at Dayton PD,” Dayton Police Department Maj. Brian Johns said during a media briefing last week. “The callousness was just shocking. You think you’ve seen it all, but I really haven’t.”

Brown and Daniels pulled up to the gas pumps around 2 a.m. Feb. 26 at the Shell station on West Third Street near Gettysburg Avenue. Surveillance video footage showed an apparent struggle inside the vehicle before a suspect, later identified as Holden, got out and fired multiple shots into the vehicle before fleeing, according to an affidavit filed in Dayton Municipal Court.

Dayton police did not discover Brown and Daniels until about three hours later when a gas station attendant hit a silent alarm because it appeared someone may have been trying to steal the vehicle, according to Johns and the affidavit.

Investigators learned multiple people went to the scene after the shooting but before police were called.

One person who arrived at the gas station looked inside the vehicle and left, Johns said. Shortly after, a black Chrysler arrived with the suspect and another man.

Holden took the victims’ cellphones and retrieved bullet casings from the ground. He left approximately two minutes before police arrived, according to court records.

No attorney is listed for Holden, who is held on $1 million bail in the Montgomery County Jail.

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