DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Dayton Police are seeing an increase in shooting into habitation crimes.
Maj. Brian Johns said the department is seeing a 35 percent spike in people shooting into homes this year.
“A lot of times there was a disagreement between several people or groups of people, and they shoot the other person’s house up,” Maj. Johns said.
He said the shootings are intentional and more frequent.
“All the ones we’re seeing this year were actually houses that had been shot up intentionally,” Maj. Johns said.
None of those instances resulted in death, but Maj. Johns said they easily could have. Another concern is the number of young people involved in shootings.
“We have some young folks who are not being supervised by their parents or guardians. They’re out at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. with firearms and shooting each other,” Maj. Johns said.
With summer violence at the top of everyone’s mind, Maj. Johns is urging people not to turn to guns to solve problems.
“Instead of trying to work out those issues or just letting them go and walking away, people choose to get a gun and retaliate in that manner. And we just can’t have that. There’s far more better ways to to deal with issues. It’s far better to walk away,” Maj. Johns said.
2 News also asked about the number of homicides so far for 2023. The city of Dayton started out the year with nearly double the amount of homicides compared to last year. That number tapered off, though. Maj. Johns said they are investigating 17 homicides so far in 2023. There were 15 homicides this time in 2022.
