Mystery surrounds the deaths of two 17-year-old Ohio boys who were shot by a homeowner who claims they were “trespassing” inside his garage in Dayton. The man called 911 around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday to report he shot the boys allegedly trespassing on his property.
NBC reports the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office identified the teens as Devon Henderson and Javier Harrison.
“I had to shot two persons right here,” he told the dispatcher. “I shoot two persons. They are with me here.”
He said he placed his gun on the ground. When asked if the teens were dead, the unidentified homeowner said he wasn’t sure because it was dark. The man was taken into custody and questioned.
Distraught family members rushed to the house located in a neighborhood of rundown boarded up homes. A train line runs through the center of the neighborhood.
Javier’s father Jimmy told the Dayton Daily News the homeowner didn’t have to shoot the boys. He said the boys knew the homeowner and they’d been in his garage before.
“It wasn’t in your house, it was in your garage,” he said. “That’s like 10 feet away from your house, you know so that means you’re seeing some perps out there at your garage, you know, so my first instinct is to call the police,” Jimmy said.
Google maps shows a small clapboard house at the 800 block of Conners Street. The house appears to be condemned by the city. The windows and door are boarded up. The detached garage where the boys were killed is located about 10 feet behind the house.
The teens were killed about 2½ miles from Dayton’s downtown entertainment district where a 24-year-old gunman killed nine people, including his own sister, on Aug. 4.
