News

Actions

Suspect arrested in 1 of 2 Mt. Airy shootings

Posted at 10:02 PM, Feb 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-08 22:02:47-05

CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati police have made an arrest in one of two shooting that were reported just hours apart in the Mount Airy neighborhood last week.

Kemontez "Finness" Leonard, 19, was booked Monday on charges of aggravated robbery and felonious assault. He's scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

Lt. Steve Saunders said Leonard is suspected of shooting a 17-year-old in the buttocks Feb. 1. Leonard also fired a shot that grazed the victim's arm, according to a criminal complaint filed with Hamilton County Municipal Court.

Before the shooting, Leonard pointed a gun at the victim and told him to "give me all of it," according to the criminal complaint.

Officials found the victim at an apartment complex on Hillvista Lane, tucked behind the northwest corner of North Bend Road and Colerain Avenue. The juvenile victim's injuries were not life-threatening, Saunders said.

About two hours later, a man was shot as he walked on Colerain near North Bend. Capt. Mike Neville said the man walked up to a gas station, where officers and paramedics found him. Neville said police think the man was wounded in a drive-by shooting, and he was in stable condition.

Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac has zeroed-in on reducing gun violence as his top priority in 2016: Mount Airy had 23 shootings in 2015, compared with 12 the year before -- a year-over-year increase of nearly 92 percent.

INFOGRAPHIC: Facts about violent crime in Cincinnati

But the issue isn't limited to any one neighborhood: Citywide, Cincinnati saw 492 shooting incidents in 2015, up from 383 in 2014. That’s nearly a 30 percent jump. Of 2015’s 492 shootings, 71 — roughly 14 percent — were homicides. Eighty-two percent of the city’s homicides were perpetrated with a firearm, the police department's annual crime report said.

Isaac also pointed to gang-related shootings as an issue warranting his department’s attention, even though the percentage of shootings that are gang-related actually decreased from 2014 to 2015.

---

WCPO.com's Pat LaFleur contributed to this report.