Police arrest one in U.S. 35 shooting incident

Dayton police arrested one person late Tuesday suspected in the shooting incident on U.S. 35 that caused motorists to duck for cover when bullets hit their vehicles.

Police officials said they did not believe the shooting was random and had been working to find the shooter and determine what happened during the Monday afternoon rush hour at Liscum Drive and U.S. 35.

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“After interviewing witnesses, all indications are that this incident stemmed from a dispute and was not random,” Dayton Lt. Jason Hall said.

Dayton police were seeking the shooter and arrested one man, identified as Micheal Blair, around 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The suspect vehicle is a silver Pontiac Grand Prix, according to the Dayton police report.

No one was reported injured, but at least three vehicles sustained damage by the gunfire, the report said. One person said his car was riddled with bullet holes.

A witness provided this news organization cell phone video of the incident, which showed a person hanging out of the rear, driver’s side passenger window of the Grand Prix and shooting at a blue car in front of it.

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911 callers reported being scared as they heard multiple shots nearby.

The first 911 caller was a woman who had just left work and was heading home when the gunfire erupted.

“I just saw a guy with a black hoodie hanging out the window shooting with a gun at this blue car,” the woman told the dispatcher.

The dispatcher asked how many gunshots she heard.

“I heard at least five or six. I just, I just dropped down in my seat and was praying. It was constant as it went by me,” the caller said.

A second driver whose car was hit called 911 when he got to his home in Kettering. He told the dispatcher the situation was scary, and he was shaking for the rest of his drive home.

He told the dispatcher he was stopped at the red light when he heard the gunfire, adding, “I don’t think they were shooting at me.”

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“I actually went through the light just to get out of there,” the caller said. “I was afraid to pull over. I didn’t know what to do … When I got home, I was checking my car and I’ve got a lot of bullet holes in my car,” he told the emergency dispatcher.

The caller told the dispatcher he has a hole in both rear quarter panels of his vehicle.

Dayton police checked a blue car parked at the Westown Shopping Center, but it’s unclear if it was struck by the gunfire.

WHIO’s John Bedell found a spent rifle shell casing on the sidewalk in the area where the shots were fired. Dayton police responded to the scene to recover the casing, but it was not certain whether the casing was from Monday’s incident.

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