‘We almost got shot:' Multiple 911 callers describe moments leading up to police-involved shooting

DAYTON — A man was shot by police in the moments after multiple people reported him acting erratically in the middle of Wayne Avenue.

“There was a guy walking down the middle of Wayne Avenue at Wayne and Edgar," the first caller to 911 said around 4 a.m. Friday. "“He’s like waving his hands and saying that he needed help.”

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The first caller told dispatchers the man, who has not been identified by police, “walked up, like right in front of my car, and he seemed like he was panicked, maybe drugs or something, I don’t know.”

Moments later, the situation escalated after another person called police to tell them the same man had just ripped open his car door, stole a gun off his passenger seat and started shooting.

“He came around to my passengers' seat. He opened up the door. He said you gotta get me to the police station, you gotta help me, they’re after me," the caller said. “I had my firearm sitting on the passenger seat and he grabbed my gun. He ran off and he is firing.”

A third 911 caller reported those shots being fired in the area of Tank’s Bar and Grill on Wayne Avenue.

“There’s a man in the street with no shirt on shooting a gun at people," the third caller said. "“He was shooting. He was in the middle of the road. He was pointing the gun at us.”

“We almost got shot,” the caller said.

When officers arrived they approached the man, who was still holding the gun. The man did not comply with officers' request to drop the weapon and was shot by police, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said.

The man, at last check, was in critical condition at Miami Valley Hospital.

Cox Media Group