Police: 2 of 5 guns recovered from fatal Middletown shooting stolen

Days after a deadly New Year's Day in Middletown, additional information is being released after two women were killed in separate incidents about an hour apart.

Police said they found five guns possibly used in the two shootings and two of them were reported stolen, according to the report obtained Friday by the Journal-News.

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Police said they are still investigating the first two homicides of the year and are hoping witnesses provide additional information regarding the incidents outside a Middletown bar and a shooting at Roosevelt Boulevard and Wicoff Street.

Two people died in the incidents: Teresa Shields, 26, of Middletown, and Mariama-Maria Richlen, 24, West Chester Twp., both front-seat passengers in the vehicles. Richlen died from multiple traumatic injuries, the Butler County Coroner’s Office said. The Warren County Coroner’s Office said an autopsy was performed on Shields, but no results would be released because of the pending homicide investigation.

Three guns were recovered near where Richlen was killed and one of the guns was stolen, police said. Days after the shooting, police issued a search warrant for one of the vehicles allegedly at the scene of the shooting and two guns were found, one reported stolen.

Early New Year’s Day, a 2010 Audi that was driven by Steven Waldon, 34, of Middletown, was hit multiple times by gunfire near the intersection of Roosevelt and Wicoff, across the street from fire headquarters. Waldon and Shields suffered several gunshot wounds, and Waldon drove them and two other passengers to the Atrium Medical Center emergency room.

At 2:19 a.m. Sunday, police responded to a report of shots fired outside the 513 Lounge, 601 N. Verity Parkway. Two off-duty Middletown police officers were working detail at the bar because of a New Year’s Eve party there when they heard shots being fired from the parking area behind the bar, according to the report.

As the two officers neared one of the vehicles, they identified themselves as officers, demanding the subjects not get in the vehicle, the report said. But several people got in the car, including the driver, later identified as Deshawn Rippey, 22, of Hamilton.

Rippey quickly started the vehicle, placed it in reverse and began backing up, police said. The officer had Rippey at gunpoint, and gave him commands to stop the car, but he refused and pulled back into the parking spot at a high rate of speed, then drove over the curb and began traveling south on Clark Street, the report said.

More Middletown police officers arrived and one officer said Rippey’s black Buick was spotted ahead of him on Clark Street and the car ran several stop signs. The Buick then crashed into a stone wall at the rear of St. John’s Church.

Richlen, a front-seat passenger, was pronounced dead there because of “careless driving and the crash,” the report said. Rippey was taken by medical helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton with critical injuries. Two of the back-seat passengers were transported to West Chester Hospital and one to Kettering Medical Center with unknown injuries, police said.

Police said because of Rippey’s medical condition they have been unable to interviewed him.

Middletown Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw said detectives do not know if the two shootings, which occurred more than one hour apart, are resulted, but everyone involved attended the New Year’s Eve party.

During their investigation, officers found seven .40 caliber casings and two vehicles had been struck by the bullets, a Toyota Camry and a Chevy.

Police found a Ruger 9mm handgun on top of the grass area with blue paint on the gun where it had struck the building when it had been thrown from the vehicle, police said. Upon further checking the area of the open parking lot north of 412 Clark St., detectives found another gun, a .40 caliber. It had been stolen from the city of Hamilton.

A resident later in the morning also located another gun, a .380 caliber handgun, laying in the area of 210 Clark St.

On Tuesday, Middletown detectives executed a search warrant on the Camry, belonging to Rosalind Williams of Hamilton. Police found a loaded gun that was confirmed to be stolen.

Police also found a baggie that contained 9 grams of what was field tested to be heroin. Then, police found a loaded Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun.

Williams told police her son, Stanley, had been driving the vehicle and police located his college ID in the car.

Police conducted a search warrant on a Chevy that had several bullet holes. Police determined the bullet holes were not from the New Year’s Day shooting.

Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call Middletown police at 513-425-7700.

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