DAYTON — A dangerous and near-deadly shootout is highlighting the case of a woman who has been missing for more than two years.
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Cierra Chapman went missing two days after Christmas in 2022.
As News Center 7 has previously reported, police said she went to her ex-boyfriend’s Trotwood apartment to retrieve some of her belongings. Her car was recorded leaving there, but officers couldn’t tell who was driving.
“They just want answers,” Michelle McCown-Luster, Director of the Dock Ellis Foundation for Missing Persons, said. “They hope this is the break they’ve been waiting for.”
McCown-Luster has been working with Chapman’s family. They are as surprised as anyone that a gas station shootout could be connected to Chapman, but that’s just what federal prosecutors revealed on Monday.
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Dayton Police previously told News Center 7 that the gunfire on September 2 happened both inside and outside the convenience store at the Sunoco on E. Third Street.
Paramedics took one suspect to the hospital. They also took two other people into custody at a nearby house; one was a witness, and the other was arrested.
News Center 7’s Mike Campbell checked court records on Tuesday and saw that detectives released the 25-year-old man from jail two days later and dropped his charges.
On Monday, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio’s office announced that the man hospitalized, 35-year-old Waler Rodgers, was now facing federal gun charges.
In court filings, federal investigators stated that witnesses heard Rodgers saying, “I’m going to do y’all like I did Cierra.”
Federal investigators believed that the statement likely referred to Chapman, his former girlfriend.
As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Dayton Police said they’ve reviewed the witness statement mentioned in the federal court documents.
Chapman’s loved ones have prayed for answers for nearly three years. Their spokesperson said they are trying to avoid a rollercoaster of emotions.
“You’re hoping, you’re praying, you’re crying, you’re screaming, and then all of the sudden, it’s not the break,” McCown-Luster said.
Police repeatedly tried to convince Rodgers to come downtown to talk to them about Chapman’s disappearance. There’s still no guarantee he’ll tell federal investigators anything he may, or may not, know about the case.
As previously reported, there is a $20,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of Chapman and information that leads to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person or people responsible for her disappearance.
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