Oxford Police Investigate Uptown Shooting; No Injuries

BY JAMES STEINBAUER
Miami University journalism student

Police were continuing to look for a gunman who fired shots in Uptown early Saturday morning, authorities said.

Police were called to a report of shots fired near the 100 block of East High Street and Uptown Park at 3 a.m. Saturday, but it appeared no one was hurt.

Witnesses told police a fight started on High Street and moved to the East Park Street parking lot where a man shot a gun several times into the air, Miami University’s Institutional Response Team wrote in a statement on the myMiami homepage.

Police found multiple 9-millimeter shell casings in the lot. No one was reported hurt.

The shooting comes less than two weeks after two Miami University students were wounded in a drug-related shooting at a rental home at 201 N. Campus Ave. The victims in that shooting first told police that the assailants shot them during the purchase of a Jeep Cherokee, but later police discovered the shooting happened during a deal to buy marijuana, police said.

Oxford Police Lt. Geoff Robinson said that the Saturday case is not connected to North Campus Avenue shooting.

“While it appears that the suspects in both isolated incidents were not connected to the Oxford-Miami community, we encourage all community members to maintain awareness to their surroundings,” Robinson wrote in the statement.

Oxford City Manager Doug Elliott said he expects police will make another arrest in the Oct. 4 shooting soon. Authorities arrested a 27-year-old Cleveland man in that shooting on Oct. 14. Patrick J. Belinson remains in the Butler County jail on two counts of complicity to aggravated robbery and two counts of complicity to felonious assault, according to jail records.

Authorities are still searching for the gunman in that robbery and shootout.

“We do our best to make it a safe environment for students and other citizens,” Elliott said Monday, speaking to a Miami journalism class. “But in this day and age, there are a lot of guns out there, and we’re not immune to some of the violence that occurs in our country.”

Police said the the weekend shooting remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call Oxford police at 513-524-5240.