Two 17-year-olds were fatally shot by a man in Dayton, Ohio, on Wednesday after they allegedly trespassed on his property, authorities said.
The man called 911 at about 9:30 p.m. to report that he had shot two people who were in or near his garage, according to the Dayton Police Department. The unidentified resident of the home said he saw a light from that area of the property and encountered three people inside his car in the garage.
He then fired a .38 caliber revolver, which killed two of the three people. The Montgomery County Coroner's Office identified them as teenagers Devin Henderson and Javier Harrison.
The third person in the car was arrested on a breaking and entering charge.
The man who shot the teens was taken into custody for questioning, and then released. He was not immediately charged with any crime.
Police said Thursday that they were consulting with prosecutors, as recent changes to Ohio law places the burden of proof for cases of self-defense on the state.
“It will take time for us to comb through the evidence and statements in order to determine if what transpired was a criminal act or an act of self-defense," Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said. "We ask for patience on behalf of the public as our detectives do their due diligence in investigating this case.”
"I need police, I shot two guys ... trying to do something in the house," the man told a 911 dispatcher, according to audio recording released on Thursday afternoon by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department.
“They’re on the floor in the garage.”
The man and dispatcher appeared to struggle with a language barrier. The dispatcher asked twice if the two people shot were dead, and the man did not answer.
At the end of the 4 1/2-minute-long recording, the sound of police sirens could be heard in the background. The final second of the recording appeared to be of the man meeting police at the door, with him saying, "Here's the gun."
The scene of Wednesday night's shooting is about 2½ miles from Dayton's downtown entertainment district where a 24-year-old gunman killed nine people, including his sister, on Aug. 4.
And Monday, two 6-year-old girls were killed when a man suspected in a stabbing and driving a stolen police cruiser crashed into two vehicles near a library in Dayton, officials said.
