Mount Healthy homicide: Police call in reinforcements for unruly crowd
A warrant has been issued for a man wanted in the shooting death of a Mount Healthy resident Sunday that police say led to a melee requiring officers from multiple departments to defuse.
Authorities are looking for 21-year-old Shavontez Layson of Forest Park in the slaying of 50-year-old Quenton De Marco Dews in Dews’ home in the 1400 block of Evencrest Drive.
Mount Healthy police said in a news release that officers dispatched to a report of a shooting shortly before 6 p.m. were met by two people standing outside the home yelling that there was a person shot inside.
Officers found Dews suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and began life-support measures until Mount Healthy paramedics arrived.
But Dews was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
“Officers attempted to secure the immediate area around the house but were hampered by a large crowd that had formed,” the news release said.
“The crowd quickly became unmanageable and additional law enforcement agencies were called to help control the crowd. With the assistance of several jurisdictions, officers were able to regain control of the crime scene and requested assistance from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Investigation Section.”
A sheriff’s detective later filed a murder charge against Layson, saying in a criminal complaint filed in Hamilton County Municipal Court that “multiple eyewitness accounts and positive identification by family members” identified Layson as the shooter.
Layson fled the scene in a vehicle and remains on the loose.
He is known to operate a black 2012 Chrysler 200 sedan with an Ohio license of HQF3261, according to the Mount Healthy police news release.
The release said Layson should be considered armed and dangerous and asks anyone who knows where he is to call Mount Healthy police at 513-728-3183, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office at 513-825-1500 or Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.
Mount Healthy has recently been plagued with violence and police have taken action that has included instituting a curfew for people 17 years old and younger at the Clovernook Apartments.