Months later, a man was shot in the leg in the 100 block of Pointview Ave., and a juvenile shot a teen in the face while mishandling a gun at a home on Bruce Avenue.
North Riverdale was among the neighborhoods with a high number of gun crimes last year, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of Dayton Police Department data. A Dayton Daily News investigation found several neighborhoods in west Dayton have been hot spots for violent crime for more than a quarter century.
Elijah O. and Helder D. live on Pointview Avenue, not far from where the North Riverdale shootings occurred.
They say they hear gunshots practically every other night “from all directions” around their home. Elijah and Helder did not want their last names published in a story about recent gun violence in their neighborhood.
Elijah said police pulled up in front of his house earlier this month to talk to him because someone was shooting guns in the empty lot next door.
Helder said a couple of weeks ago a stranger pointed a handgun at his face for no reason when he swung by a nearby gas station on North Main Street.
Elijah recently decided to install a Ring video camera because he’s worried about break-ins and other crime in the neighborhood. He also hung a sign by his front door that says, “This House Is Protected By God And A Gun / (Expletive) Around And You Will Meet Them Both.” Elijah said he has started carrying a gun for protection.
Elijah said good people live in North Riverdale, including quite a few families with kids. He said he moved into a home on Pointview Avenue about six months ago because the rent is very cheap. He pays $1,100 per month for a five bedroom home.
”The thing I always say when I hear a gunshot, and this sounds brutally messed up, but, ‘They are keeping my rent down,” he said.
Elijah says he hopes he’ll be able to avoid trouble by minding his own business and carrying a gun for self-defense. But he acknowledged that someone pointed a pistol at Helder, even though he wasn’t doing anything wrong.
Helder said residents in the neighborhood are not the ones causing the problems. He said troublemakers are coming from the North Main Street corridor.
Pointview Avenue is along North Main Street, which for years has been a source of resident complaints about crime and safety.
“Gun violence is always going to be there because you have people who shouldn’t own guns,” Helder said. “You have people who are not mentally strong enough and responsible enough to handle something like that.”
Elijah said gun crime and violence is a fact of life in Dayton, just as it is in other large, poor urban areas.
Research shows that gun crime is indeed linked to poverty. But city and community leaders say things can be done to improve the safety and quality of life in Dayton neighborhoods.
DAYTON GUN VIOLENCE
A project from the Dayton Daily News
A Dayton Daily News investigation found several neighborhoods in west Dayton have been hot spots for violent crime for more than a quarter century.
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