Police: Pair of shootings may be connected

Middletown police are investigating two early-morning shootings — one of which left a man with a gunshot wound to the chest — that could be connected.

Police were called to a residence in the 1500 block of Fairfield Avenue at 4:20 a.m. Tuesday on a report of a shooting. The resident there, Joe Boggs, 35, told police that there was a knock on his door, and when he answered, a black male pointed a handgun at him. Boggs said he grabbed the gun, pushed it down and shut and locked his front door.

But the gun went off and the bullet traveled through the front door and struck Boggs in the upper right chest. Police later found a casing on the front of the porch, according to a police report.

Boggs said he was transported to Atrium Medical Center, where he was treated and released. He said the bullet was stuck in his muscle tissue and the wound was covered with bloody gauze Tuesday afternoon.

Boggs said he didn’t recognize the shooter, and there was “no reason” for anyone to be knocking on his door at that time in the morning. He said the gun was pointed at his head.

“If I didn’t do something,” he said, “I was dead. It was either let him kill me or fight back.”

Boggs’ mother, Karen Boggs, who lives around the corner, said her son surviving the shooting was “a miracle.”

Boggs lives on an alley between Garfield and Baltimore streets and he said his porch light was off at the time of the shooting. He hopes a neighbor’s surveillance camera shows the shooting and police are able to identify the suspect.

A few minutes later, Middletown police responded to a residence in the 1300 block of Woodlawn Avenue on a report that a man was having difficulty breathing.

Police talked to a female resident and she said Chris Walton knocked on her door, begging for help. Police said Walton wasn’t wearing a shirt, was lying on the floor and was struggling to breathe.

The woman told police that Walton couldn’t walk so she let him inside her residence. While the woman said she didn’t know Walton, she said she saw him walking down Woodlawn Avenue toward Curtis Street about 20 minutes earlier. She said a white vehicle followed Walton.

Walton told police that he had been robbed by a man with a firearm. He said the man got out of the white vehicle, and threatened him with the gun. When Walton refused to give the man his money, the man fired a shot, then demanded the contents of his pockets again.

It was unclear whether Walton was injured, according to the police report. He was transported to Atrium, but he wasn’t admitted, according to hospital records.

The person involved in the Woodlawn robbery attempt could also be the same suspect who shot Boggs, according to the police report. The case remains under investigation, police said.

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