ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Two teenagers were charged Tuesday in connection to a deadly Memorial Day shooting in St. Clair Township, but police weren’t the ones who found them.
Larry Roberts, who lives near the scene of the shooting, said Tuesday night that the two suspects fled onto his property in a state of disarray: One soaking wet and half-naked, as though he’d run through a creek, one completely dry and both eager to get away.
He didn’t know at the time that 23-year-old Maurice Chatman had been reported shot to death on Warwick Road, he said. He only knew that the two people in front of him -- 19-year-old Eric Brown and a 17-year-old suspect -- were behaving suspiciously.
"They wanted to know if somebody could give them a ride," he said. "They had stacks of money."
Roberts held the two suspects at gunpoint, he said, and ordered them to lie down on his driveway. One tried to run for Roberts' car, where Roberts' grandchild was in the back seat.
“He started crawling and acting stupid," Roberts said. "I said, 'If you move again, if you blink your eye, I am blowing your brains out.'"
He threatened to kill them if they moved, then called 911.
"When the officer pulled up, he didn’t even need to pull his 9 out," Roberts said. "I was the one that had both of them contained. He just put the cuffs on."
Neither of the teenagers has been charged with shooting Chatman, but both face charges of obstructing justice and tampering with evidence, according to a news release from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.
The investigation is ongoing. Deputies asked anyone with information to call them at 513-785-1209.
