Principal: Middletown teen’s death in shooting ‘a senseless act’

Joseph Davis, the Middletown teen who died in a shooting Tuesday night at Woodlawn Avenue and Garfield Street, was a student at Marshall High School, according to Chuck Hall, the school’s principal.

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Davis enrolled in the charter school in January 2018 after his family moved to Middletown from Detroit, Hall said.

He described Davis as “a quiet young man.”

Hall called the teen’s death “a senseless act” and said the staff at Marshall was trying to deal with his death.

At Marshall, he said, the goal is to get students to take “a better path.”

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Ruth Ikramov said she was at home watching a movie when she heard the gunshots just before midnight.

“I assumed they were fireworks until I heard the screaming,” she said.

When she ran outside, she said she saw a child who had been shot in the neck lying in the street with his bicycle.

“It was just a crazy scene,” she said.

Ikramov said she believes the shooter had been looking for a specific target that may not have been Davis.

“They have been going up and down this street, making U-turns,” she said of a group of people in a black Dodge Charger with dark tinted windows.

“We think this is an ongoing dispute with Joseph and his friends and another group of young men,” Middletown Police Major Scott Reeve told this news outlet.

Drivers stopped and tried to help Davis, according to Ikramov.

“One woman was holding her hand on his neck trying to stop the bleeding,” she said.

The scene was chaotic until police arrived, Ikramov said.

“It was pandemonium. Everybody running around screaming, trying to figure out who it was,” she said.

A memorial was erected Wednesday morning at the site of the shooting.

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