HARRISON TOWNSHIP — A dispute between young men left one man injured and scattered bullets throughout a Harrison Township neighborhood Saturday afternoon.
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office investigators told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell that the community needs to speak up to make sure this type of violence doesn’t continue.
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The gunfire took place in broad daylight on the 3000 block of Otis Drive, but many others were impacted.
At least two separate 911 callers told dispatchers that their homes were hit by gunfire.
“Some people were shooting and I’m sitting in my living room and a bullet came through my house,” one caller said.
“Looks like a bullet hit my refrigerator and there’s a bullet casing on my floor,” another caller said.
News Center 7 got access to nearly a half-dozen 911 calls that came into dispatchers Saturday afternoon.
When deputies arrived at the scene, they discovered a 19-year-old who had been shot in the shoulder.
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Major Jeremy Roy said if the bullet was three inches to the left, it would have been fatal.
Roy said they received a lot of calls reporting the gunfire, but they aren’t receiving much help in identifying the people who fired the gun.
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“We know there were witnesses there when it took place, those witnesses are not coming forward or being cooperative,” Roy said.
The people who didn’t see the shooting happen, but are feeling the results are the ones who are talking.
Tony Mitchell lives in the neighborhood and raced home to learn how his family avoided disaster.
“I was worried about my family because my wife was in the house,” Mitchell said.
Walking through the house and finding bullets is not a good feeling and he worries about the young people involved.
“You can’t do four years in school, but you’ll do 20 years in prison, it just don’t make no sense,” Mitchell said.
“These rounds don’t have names on them so when they start getting fired, they go everywhere,” Roy said.
Roy said they have a report of three young men leaving the area quickly right after the gunfire occurred.
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Anonymous information would likely help investigators prevent future problems, he said.
“You don’t know what future crime you are deterring, whose son or dad or daughter may be shot down the road because that person was taken off the street when it occurred,” Roy said.
To share information about this case anonymously, call CrimeStoppers at 937-222-STOP.