A mass shooting early Monday morning at a Fourth of July block party in central Toledo left one person dead and 11 injured, Toledo Police Chief George Kral said.
Multiple gunmen fired approximately 80 rounds, killing a 17-year-old male whom medics flew to Ann Arbor for treatment. The surviving victims ranged from age 11 to 51. Chief Kral said nine are stable, but that the 51-year-old and a 19-year-old are in critical condition.
“We have 12 Toledoans who were shot last night,” Chief Kral said. “We should be angry. We need to come together as a community. We've seen this type of violence in this country all year long. And now it’s hit home."
The chief urged partygoers to come forward with information.
"Someone there knows who was shooting these guns," Chief Kral said. "We'll keep you safe. We'll make sure we get this information, but we need to do this together."
Chief Kral said there are no suspects at this time, and the department is unsure why the shooting started. He added that participants and victims are not cooperating with investigators, but urged anyone with information to contact Crimestopper at 419-255-1111 or the detective bureau.
Police received a call at 10:17 p.m. alerting them about a block party on Lawrence Avenue, but officers were tied up on what Chief Kral called their “busiest day of the year” and found no reason to respond.
At 12:24 a.m. someone called the police about a Black male firing a gun in the air and a 300-person mob fighting in the street. Officers arrived at the scene within 30 seconds while gunshots were still being fired. The Toledo Fire and Rescue Department, the Lucas County Sherriff’s Office, and Ohio State Highway Patrol provided backup.
Lawrence Avenue resident Brittany Schermerhorn compared the melee to a movie scene. She said she saw at least three people with what looked like bullet wounds in the foot, arm, and torso respectively.
She said partygoers ushered the injured into cars because ambulances took at least 20 minutes to arrive, but she acknowledged that the emergency vehicles could have had difficulty getting down the busy street because of the crowd.
Kenny Smith’s relatives throw the Independence Day celebration each year. While cleaning his lawn of empty drink pouches and crime scene tape, he emphasized the event's family-friendly nature: One of the shooting victims was his 11-year-old cousin.
Mr. Smith reported that none of his family know who started the shooting, and he could not recall whether the gunfire began before or after the police arrived because “everything went so crazy.”
Ms. Schermerhorn said casings littered her lawn, confirming what she believed were shots hitting her house from the direction of Lincoln Market. A bullet hole marred the siding on the southern facing wall of a house that sits an empty lot away from the convenience store.
A Blade analysis of shots fired calls in Toledo in 2020 indicates gunfire is not uncommon in the area.
The intersection falls into census tracts 15, 16, and 21. In the three tracts combined, there were 221 total reported occurrences of gun violence, including 34 incidents in the immediate area of Detroit and Lawrence avenues. Most of the incidents involved the discharge of a firearm where only casings were found. Two of the incidents resulted in injury.
The first was a person shot in the leg by a suspect who kicked in his front door. The second shooting, reported June 22, 2020, involved a large group of people standing outside at Lawrence and Lindsay avenues, just north of Detroit Avenue. Two in the party were wounded.
During last year’s Independence Day holiday weekend, there were 11 shooting instances reported across the weekend including the killing of Toledo Police Officer Anthony Dia as he responded to a disturbance regarding a suspected drunk individual.
“If you want to have your fun with your friends and relatives, knock yourselves out, but leave your guns at home,” Chief Kral said.
Staff writer Kaitlin Durbin contributed to this report.
First Published July 5, 2021, 1:23 p.m.
