The case is being investigated as a home invasion/self-defense case, according to Police Department press release.
Police reports noted two victims, one man, Christopher Barger, 19, of 354 Hampshire Drive, reported three men tried to rob him at gunpoint. The second victim, Antonio Heath, 24 of West Chester Twp., was discovered deceased in the bathroom.
The Butler County Coroner’s Office is scheduled to perform an autopsy Friday.
Heath held a prior conviction in Butler County for burglary.
According to a 911 call, a man reported a domestic dispute in one of the apartments .
“I can hear a female and male fighting,” the caller said. “I looked out the peephole, and there were two males running back inside their apartment saying, ‘They have guns.’”
The caller said he wasn’t sure whether the men possessed guns or they were referring to men outside the apartment with guns.
A woman in a downstairs apartment in the complex also made a 911 call, saying a woman ran down from the same apartment and told her that the men had broken into the apartment with a gun.
“Three black guys… one of them had blood all over their face right now,” she said during the call.
She added that the woman didn’t know the men in the apartment.
Dagan Robinson spent the night at his girlfriend’s apartment, located in the same complex. While he didn’t hear any suspicious noises last night, the news of a stabbing was disturbing, he said.
“It seems like nothing ever really happens around here, but this is the second time I heard of someone getting stabbed in that area,” Robinson said.
He added that he was worried about his girlfriend’s safety.
Burkhardt said that this is the second homicide on Hampshire Drive this year. Derrick Brown died Feb. 21 of several gunshot wounds sustained in an altercation on Jan. 31 in the parking lot of the Indian Springs Apartment Complex, 357 Hampshire Dr.
Thursday’s homicide marks the fourth homicide so far in 2014, Burkhardt said.
“We certainly have more calls as the weather warms up,” Burkhardt said.
According to 2013 data provided by the department, total service calls increased from 5,511 in April to 6,177 in May. They remained around 6,000 per month for the rest of the summer, hitting a high in July of 6,449 before dropping back down to 5,354 in September.
Out of 64,005 total calls in 2013, 24,823, or nearly 39 percent, were placed in the summer months.
Staff writer Lauren Pack contributed to this report.
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