According to a Springfield Police Divison report, officers were dispatched to Cole Manor at 315 S. Burnett Rd. at around 3:30 a.m. to assist with locating a suspect in an earlier felonious assault. Upon arriving, officers were let into the building by two women.
Officers were looking for the suspect when they noticed a, “male wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, red shoes and a Cincinnati Reds hat,” the report said.
“As we continued to look at the male, he repeatedly looked in our direction,” the report said. “Once the male was out of our site, due to the railing and posts blocking our view, we heard six to seven gunshots and then females screaming.”
The three officers ran in the direction of the shots in the parking lot, where they found Minerd with what, “appeared to be a bullet hole on the right side of his head and was bleeding profusely,” the report said. He also had a gun in his right hand. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The two women were taken to Springfield Regional Medical Center with serious but not life-threatening injuries, according to the report.
The shooting caused some panic in the Burnett Road area.
A woman who lives on South Burnett Road said she was awaken by her dog barking and going into “panic mode,” before shots rang out.
When she went onto her balcony, she said she heard gunfire and then saw a man fall to the ground.
“I looked over to the car where girls were yelling and her glass window shattered at the driver’s side,” she said. “I knew they were already shot because they were screaming and that’s when her glass shattered.”
The woman said the shooting has left her feeling scared and unsafe.
“You can’t move anywhere because it’s going to happen wherever you go,” she said.
Earlier in the evening at around 1 a.m., police were dispatched to Speedway located at 2996 Derr Rd. in Springfield on a call of someone being shot, another SPD report said.
“I observed that the front left glass door was shot out and there was glass everywhere,” the report said. “I then observed a white male stating he was shot. The male had a gunshot wound to the middle of his lower back and also a graze from a bullet to the left side of his head just above his left ear.”
The victim told police he had been mopping the floor when he heard three to four quick gunshots. The victim was transported to Springfield Regional Medical Center by medic then taken by Care Flight to Miami Valley Hospital.
SPD officers and Clark County Sheriff’s Office Deputies searched the scene and were unable to locate the suspect in the shooting, who was described by a witness as wearing blue jeans, a black shirt and a grey hat.
The Springfield News-Sun reached out to Speedway about the shooting and did not receive a response.
It’s unclear whether Minerd is thought to be a suspect in the shooting, as the police report does not name him as a suspect.
SPD and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office are continuing to investigate both shootings as of Friday afternoon.
