MORE: Middletown drive-by shooting may be connected to other crimes
“That’s the kind of thing we want to know of,” he said. “So we can be visible enough to deter it.”
Earlier this week, Julian Marquis Johnson, 23, of Middletown, was shot and killed, the city’s sixth homicide of the year, matching the number from all of 2016, according to police records reviewed by the Journal-News.
In May 2017, there were 13 reports of shots fired in the city, though in some cases, police located no evidence, according to records reviewed by the Journal-News.
MORE: Police, victim's father fear retaliation after Middletown bar shooting
Malcolm Franklin, 27, formerly of Baton Rouge, La., was charged with aggravated murder and three counts of felonious assault for his alleged involvement in the shooting at 1:45 a.m. Tuesday outside D&J’s Nite Spot, 1200 Elliott Drive, police said.
Bond was set at $1 million for Franklin, who remains in the City Jail, according to records.
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Police believe the shootings are being committed by “a select few who have prior knowledge” of each other. The shootings, police believe, are drug-related, Cunningham said.
“It’s not a wide spread issue,” he said. “It’s a specific group of people.”
Cunningham said “it’s possible” more arrests may be made in connection to the fatal shooting at D&J’s Nite Spot.
