Mother grateful she and her baby alive after Dayton shooting, robbery

DAYTON — A Dayton mother is grateful after she got shot while holding her 7-month-old baby during a robbery on Linden Avenue in the fall.

“I’m just so thankful she’s OK,” Heather George told News Center 7’s Kate Bartley Monday.  “That was my main concern, her.”

George was shot Nov. 12 in the 2600 block of St. Charles Avenue.

The mother said a family friend brought strangers over to the house and knew she had cash. One of the strangers spotted an unloaded gun in a drawer and reached for it, George said.

“So then I reached for that gun, and the next thing I know I heard a bang and I'm like, ‘oh goodness, what happened!’” George said.

While George was holding her baby, one of them shot her with another gun. George grabbed the gun from the shooter and the group of strangers took off.

A 16-year-old was arrested on two counts of aggravated robbery and three counts of felonious assault for his alleged role in the incident. He’s denied the charges and was ordered to stay in juvenile detention. His next court date is not yet known.

New state medical data show Clark and Montgomery counties had some of the highest per capita rates of firearm injuries in the state in 2017.

In Ohio, firearm injuries are the fourth-highest cause of long hospital stays for severe and traumatic injuries — after burns, motorcycle crashes and pedestrian strikes, according to this news outlet’s analysis of 2017 data from the Ohio Trauma Registry

In 2017, gunshots were also the fourth leading cause of severe and traumatic injuries in Montgomery County that led to hospitalization and the fifth leading cause in Clark County, the data show.

Last year, about 95 people died from gunfire in Montgomery County, about 86 died the year before, according to the Montgomery County Coroner Kent Harshbarger.

“As far as trauma, gunshot wounds are relatively lethal because of the degree of energy that is imparted by a fast-moving projectile,” said Harshbarger. “It does a lot of tissue damage, but that’s a general statement because a gunshot becomes lethal because of what it hits.”

In 2017, Franklin, Clark and Montgomery counties had the highest per capita rates of gunshot wounds of all 88 counties in the state, according to data from the Ohio Trauma Registry report.

Franklin County, home to Columbus, recorded 420 gunshot injuries, or 33 per 100,000 residents, according to the recently released report.

Clark County, which is a little more than one-tenth the size of Franklin County, had 42 gunshot wounds, or 31 per 100,000 residents. Montgomery County had 152 gunshot wounds, or 29 per 100,000 residents.

Staff writer Cornelius Frolik contributed to this report