Toledo sets new homicide record with shooting of 30-year-old man

Nov. 19—Toledo police are investigating a shooting in an East Toledo home as a homicide.

Police responded to the 2300 block of Caledonia St. about 1:30 p.m. Thursday where they found Dominique Davis, 30, dead inside his home.

This is the 62nd homicide in Toledo this year, eclipsing last year's record-setting year of 61.

Toledo tallied 61 homicides in 2020, one more than the record 60 set in 1980 and a significant spike from the 38 counted in 2019.

Anthony Koback, a nearby neighbor, said the home's residents had moved in about a year ago and mostly kept to themselves, but had paid him several times to cut their grass.

The house had been in "disarray" before they moved in, but "they fixed it up and made it look presentable — they had pride in the house, in the property."

"About 1 p.m. I thought I heard six or seven muffled gunshots" he said, but he doubted his ears enough that he didn't call 911.

Somebody else must have, though, because police cars started showing up shortly thereafter.

Mr. Koback said the neighborhood was pretty quiet when he moved in eight years ago, but in the past three or four years "it's turned into a madhouse."

A house several doors down was shot up a few months ago, he noted in particular.

"I just wish all of this violence and stuff would stop. It's unnecessary," he said. "All of us are equal, no matter who we are."

Davis had been shot several times before, most recently in October. Police said then that he walked into Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center at 3:17 a.m. Oct. 16 with a gunshot wound he'd received in the 2300 block of Caledonia.

He was shot in 2010 in the 2300 block of North Detroit Avenue and in 2014 in the 1500 block of Jermain Drive. After each incident, police said his condition was serious. He also was among four men shot in 2016 at a central Toledo after-hours club.

First Published November 18, 2021, 2:33pm