DAYTON — Police have confirmed that a shot was fired Friday night during the Dayton Children’s parade downtown and officers believe a male juvenile fired a handgun into the air while at least two juvenile females were fighting, Dayton police Lt. Col. Eric Henderson said at a media briefing after the event was abruptly stopped.
“That’s not 100 percent definitive,” he said of the scenario.
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Police did recover a shell casing from an area near a breezeway north of Courthouse Square, near West Second Street, Henderson said, and that casing is being processed. No one was detained or arrested.
One of the department’s 30 officers on the scene saw the fight but was not close enough to see or hear the gunshot, the lieutenant colonel said.
The report came into Montgomery County Regional Dispatch at 8:12 p.m. about a noise in the area of the Boston Stoker Coffee Co., 34 W. Second St., that sounded like gunfire, according to a sheriff’s sergeant with dispatch.
No one had been shot and no one had been injured, the sergeant said.
A caller to the News Center 7 newsroom and News Center 7 News Director Laura Evans said they saw people running in the area of the Key Bank building, in the 4700 block of North Main Street, and the Schuster Performing Arts Center, 1 W. Second St.
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People could be seen running when the report of the gunshot was made.
News Center 7 has learned that police, using a bullhorn, at one point told people attending the event to leave downtown.
A patron at the Schuster Performing Arts Center contacted this newsroom to report that patrons were told to remain in their seats at intermission.
Henderson said police officers were sent into the Schuster Center to keep patrons there until the situation was deemed safe.
Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. said, “we are disappointed. . . that so many people who traveled . . . to help Dayton celebrate this holiday season. For this to happen. This is disappointing.”
Sandy Gudorf, president of the Downtown Dayton Partnership, said, there are no plans to re-do the children’s parade.
“We are very disappointed we are not able to complete the parade,” she said at the media briefing. “We’re just so thankful that no one was hurt.”
Neither Gudorf or Henderson would offer an estimate of the crowd that had come downtown for the holiday event, which included the tree lighting on Courthouse Square, but offered, “it was one of the larger crowds I have seen in a long, long time.”
Henderson said there was a report of a person who suffered a panic attack. That person was treated at the scene and released, he said.
Henderson said anyone who believes they have information about the gunshot or the fight should call 937-333-COPS or if the caller wants to remain anonymous, 937-225-STOP.
We will update this developing report as we learn more.
Editors Note: A previous version of this store incorrectly said that police reported a female juvenile fired a handgun. Police said at a media briefing that an initial investigation reports a male may have shot the handgun while two juvenile females were fighting. The story has been updated to say this.
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