CINCINNATI - Six months after a startling killing on a Walnut Hills street, fear and concern are gone and there’s a welcome sense of relief in the neighborhood, residents say.
The brutal beating and fatal shooting of a driver after he accidentally hit a child who wandered into the road disturbed people on Kenton Street.
"It kinda left a dark cloud on this street," said Asia Anderson.
It became a stigma, said Leslie Clim, a 20-year resident. She just had to say where she lives and “everybody gets their eyebrows raised cause of the incident."
She was referring to the killing of 44-year-old Jamie Urton.
Flash back to March 2017.
Residents say their street was plagued with groups of people hanging out on the corners and cars speeding by. Their sense of safety was compromised.
Things got worse after Urton and a co-worker drove along Kenton Street on March 24. When they got near Burbank Street, a 4-year-old boy jumped into the street and was hit by Urton’s car.
According to witnesses, that's when the child's dad, Jamall Killings, and another man, Deonte Baber, took matters into their own hands.
Killings beat Urton while he was still in the car, prosecutor Joe Deters said. Then Baber shot Urton five times, according to Deters.
Killings bragged to his son that he killed Urton, according to Deters. A man was heard on a 911 call saying, “I killed him, he dead, he dead. The dude that hit you with the car, he dead."
“They could have went about it a different way instead of just reacting off emotion,” Anderson said. “But at the same time, it was a tragedy cause this is a child."
Fortunately, the child survived.
Flash forward to late September.
With the first trial set to begin next week, the crowds on the street corners and the speeders are gone, and the neighborhood is calm thanks to police and residents.
"No violence or anything on this street since," said Anderson.
Neighbors are calling it a "major difference."
"It just lets me know you can clean up a street or a community when it's enough help from the community," Clim said.
A quick search for incidents on Kenton Street since March 24 lists only three police calls for service.
Clim credits that to an increase in police patrols.
"I like when they have the bicycle cops,” Clim said. “I think that really makes a difference interacting with people in the community."
The question now is, will all this progress last?
“I know it can last,” Clim said. “I don’t think we’re going to have any more problems on this street at all.”
Kilings' next court appearence is scheduled for Oct. 4.
Baber is scheduled for court Nov. 1. He also faces a murder charge.
