Police said the shooter fled the scene, along with several others who were inside the hall when the shooting occurred. The suspect was described by police as a black male wearing a dark hoodie sweatshirt and possibly a red hat.
The shooting is the first homicide of 2011 in the region.
Middletown police Sgt. Andy Warrick said the shooting remains under investigation, and detectives are interviewing “people of interest in the case.” The shooting apparently occurred at a New Year’s Eve party that somehow went awry, Warrick said.
According to Middletown Municipal Court records, Moton was charged with felonious assault and inducing panic in August 2009.
He was also arrested this past September in Cincinnati on a charge of aggravated menacing, according to police and court records.
Moton, nicknamed “skinny” because of his slender build, attended Middletown High School after his mother brought him to Cincinnati from Chicago to protect him from life on the streets.
Moton dropped out of school in the tenth grade at the age of 16, according to an article published in the Cincinnati Herald in April.
Moton told the newspaper he had been trying to turn his life around and was working with a program called Connect2Success, a collaborative made up of social service agencies that try to help young people who have dropped out of high school.
The article stated he had passed his GED in January 2010 and was enrolled at Cincinnati State, where he had planned to study business management.
“I made a turnaround,” Moton said in the article. “As long as you’re willing to put your best foot forward and truly be dedicated, it’s never too late to change.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Middletown police at (513) 425-7700 or Detective Rich Bush at (513) 425-7720.
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