FULL REPORT
UPDATE @ 8:45 p.m.
A 27-year-old Middletown resident, Malcolm Franklin, is in jail stemming from the deadly shooting at D&J’s Nite Spot, on Elliott Drive in Middletown bar on Tuesday morning.
Franklin ran from police but was arrested Sunset Park and is being detained on three counts of felonious assault with a weapon, according to Middletown Lt. Jimmy Cunningham. Franklin is to be in court Wednesday morning.
Police were dispatched to the bar about 1:45 a.m. on reports of multiple shooting victims, police said in a statement released to media.
Dead is Julian Marquis Johnson, 23, also of Middletown. Police said he died at the night spot in Kennedy Plaza. An autopsy is scheduled to be performed Wednesday morning.
A second victim, identified only as a woman, was also found suffering from a gunshot wound. She was taken to Atrium Medical Center. Her condition has not been released.
Police said a third person might have been hit by gunfire, but fled. Police said they followed a blood trail to the area of Roosevelt Boulevard and Elliott Drive, where they believe the victim was picked up in a vehicle.
Police earlier today recovered a gun in a yard on Milton Road that is believed to have been used in the shooting.
Detectives are working to determine if the shooting at D&J’s Nite Spot is related to shootings in the city during the last few days.
Cunningham said police are concerned about retaliation and are urging residents with any information about the shooting to call the department at 513-425-7700.
Two women, working in businesses in the shopping center where the bar is located, said they were not surprised by Tuesday’s shooting.
“Bound to happen,” said one, who noted she has seen illegal activity in the parking lot.
Another woman said she was concerned because her child attends a nearby child care center.
Middletown has at least six homicides -- including the shooting at D&J’s Nite Spot -- through May, the same number it recorded for all of 2016, according to city police records.
Police have been called to D&J’s Nite Spot 13 times in the last 12 months, according to police reports researched by the Journal-News.
Eight of those calls were this year. Most of the incidents occurred in the parking lot but there were at least two fights inside the bar, according to the reports.
In one of those incidents, on Aug. 14, 2016, a woman said she was attacked and beaten in the bar. When police asked to see the bar’s surveillance video, someone in the bar refused, saying police must get a subpoena.
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There have also been at least two reports of shots fired, but witnesses in both incidents were uncooperative with police.
There also were reports of a robbery, assault, drug use and disturbances, all in the parking lot.
MORE: 22 removed from Middletown home after shots fired
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