Miami Twp. police still seek motive, suspects behind deadly daytime I-75 shooting

“We are looking at all angles, and we are still trying to gather any information we can,” said Pat McCoy, Miami Twp. police public information officer.

McCoy said authorities are actively investigating the Monday afternoon highway shooting that killed 64-year-old James L. Brown.

A warrant to search the vehicle Brown was driving was executed, McCoy said. That search warrant was returned and sealed in Miamisburg Municipal Court on Wednesday.

Authorities are also continuing to ask the public to come forward if they were near the Austin Boulevard exit Monday afternoon about the time of the shooting.

“The investigation is ongoing and detectives are following every lead and looking into any information received,” said McCoy. “We are encouraging anyone who saw the shooting or if they have any information about the event to please contact us. We also want any truck driver who was on I-75 south between the 44 and 42 mileposts at the time of the shooting and they had a dash camera in their truck which was recording to please contact us as well.”

Brown’s grandaughter, Ashley Stewart, told the Dayton Daily News that Brown and wife Evelyn were together for 40 years.

She also expressed disbelief about her grandfather’s homicide on social media and to other media, saying that her grandfather was someone who made other people happy and didn’t have an enemy.

“James Brown was a loving soul who will be missed dearly. He did not deserve what happened to him,” she wrote on a GoFundMe page created for his family.

She told media outlets that her grandfather ran a flea market booth at Monroe and that he may have been headed that way before the fatal shooting occurred.

She said her family needs justice for her grandfather.

Numerous policing agencies responded to the shooting. 911 callers described the shooting as a drive-by started by someone in a blue Jeep with a man shooting out the back. The shooting caused some motorists to swerve out of the way from the bullets.

The incident caused a busy part of the highway to close for several hours while police investigated, and the shutdown caused traffic to back up in the surrounding areas.

A 911 caller said the Jeep exited the highway just a few miles down the road but lost sight as it left. Middletown police detained three individuals later that day, but they were determined not to be involved in the shooting.

“The blue Jeep stopped in Middletown was not involved in the shooting,” McCoy told the Dayton Daily News. “There was only one person in that Jeep, and she was arrested on an unrelated outstanding traffic warrant. A second vehicle was stopped in Middletown that contained two people who were also later determined not involved. There were no arrests made.”

McCoy said the individuals were stopped because the vehicles matched the description. They were cooperative with detectives, McCoy said, and detectives made the determination they weren’t involved.

“That happens in an investigation, especially when you get a lead and a vehicle may match a description, you have to chase down the lead and try to confirm it,” he said. “The investigators learned during the interview that it didn’t fit. It’s a process of elimination.”