Douglas Lee Sutton, 56, was charged with two counts each of murder and felonious assault and one count of discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises, according to Vandalia Municipal Court records.
The charges stem from a shooting reported around 2:10 p.m. Sunday at Needmore Road and Webster Street.
Sutton was reportedly driving west on Needmore Road when the road rage incident involving another vehicle took place. Sutton was traveling at a slower speed on the roadway and began “brake-checking” the car behind him. During the altercation, one of the drivers threw a bottle of water, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
Sutton had a firearm and shot a single round into the other vehicle while they were both stopped at a traffic light, according to court records. The driver of the other vehicle, later identified as Bailey, was struck and died.
Sutton then drove away, heading south on Webster Street.
“It’s one of those things where we wish both parties just got away from each other,” Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said. “Because now we have two individuals, one who’s lost their life, the other one who may have seriously damaged the rest of his life and then you have the family and friends involved in all this.”
Both drivers had passengers in their vehicles. No injuries were reported among them.
On Sunday, deputies arrested Sutton as he was walking back to a Fairborn hotel and booked him into the Montgomery County Jail. Sutton’s bond was set at $1 million on Tuesday.
Streck said his office is working to patrol areas frequently during rush hours, adopting a “zero tolerance” policy. The sheriff’s office is also working with other law enforcement agencies to crack down on traffic and other violations from county line to county line.
“And having my deputies out there doing that is scary for me,” he said. “But we feel we have to try to do it to slow some of these accidents down. We’re just trying to get some sanity back on some of these roadways.”
Montgomery County’s sheriff urged motorists to give themselves more time to get through construction zones and heavy-traffic areas, but also to distance themselves from aggressive drivers on the roadway and call 911 if the situation is endangering their safety.
“Try not to escalate what’s going on, just try to get away from that individual,” Streck said. “You don’t know what that individual is going through and how they’re going to react, so the best thing that we can do is remove ourselves from it.”
Due to the severity of the incident, deputies called in the Montgomery County Regional SWAT Team and Regional Emergency Response Team to assist with the search. Investigators served search warrants in Harrison Twp., Riverside and Fairborn, according to the sheriff’s office.