READING, Ohio -- A man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and left a woman in critical condition after a Tuesday night shooting on Jefferson Avenue, according to the Reading Police Department.
Police said 24-year-old Jomar Harris of Cincinnati died in what they described as an attempted murder-suicide. According to police, Harris confronted his ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old April Hancock, by cutting her off in traffic, exiting his own car and shooting at her before shooting himself.
"I heard a pop-pop-pop, and then it was kind of quiet, and then pop-pop again," said Carol Price, who lives near the incident.
Hancock attempted to escape, first by putting her car in reverse and then by jumping out and running, but collapsed on the street.
"She crawled over there to get away from him and she begged him to stop," Michael Long, who witnessed the attack, said.
Her car rolled all the way downhill to Price’s home, where neighbors noticed there was another occupant: A toddler who had remained completely unharmed.
"He seemed to be just a sweet little boy," Price said.
She and neighbor Kylie Newman cared for him while first responders rushed the man and woman to the hospital. Police said the child is now in the custody of Hamilton County Children's Services.
"It’s really heartbreaking just to know that he doesn't really know what is going on and he has no control over it," Newman said.
Court records indicated Harris and Hancock's relationship had been violent and troubled since at least 2016, when he was charged with pushing Hancock from a car in the middle of a busy intersection. Those allegations were eventually dropped. Hancock was charged with hitting Harris with a vehicle in July.
Her trial for that domestic violence charge would have begun Thursday morning.
