Cincinnati police chief 'disappointed, upset' at recent shootings

A man shot to death in Bond Hill on Thursday morning marks the fourth shooting death in 10 days in Cincinnati. City leaders are now asking the community for help.

"We are disappointed," Cincinnati police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said Thursday morning. "We are upset."

Blackwell said authorities are working on multiple cases.

"We are doing everything we can," Blackwell said. "(Homicides) spike every year at this time of the year, but we want our spike to subside."

When police reached the 1500 block of Joseph Street around 10 a.m., they found a man lying on the sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds. Police attempted to perform CPR but were unsuccessful, Blackwell said.

The man was identified later as 31-year-old Eric Moore, according to Cincinnati police.

"We need folks to stand up in this city and say, 'enough is enough,' " Blackwell said. "We are getting a lot of community cooperation on this one, which is a blessing and we need that.

The shooting on Thursday morning stemmed from a "personal beef," and the victim had been shot about a month earlier, Blackwell said.

Witnesses near the scene of the shooting reported hearing as many as 18 shots. One nearby resident saw the victim on the sidewalk and rushed to his side.

"I came out here and saw him lying on the ground," Ron Leathers of Bond Hill said. "By the time I got there, a lady was already trying to grab his wrist for a pulse."

Other residents said they had mixed feelings about the area. Some said they lived in a "good neighborhood," but others said they had enough.

"These kids just want to shoot around like it's a game," Jessica Jackson told The Enquirer. "It's not a game. It's not a toy. There were kids out here on New Year's firing guns up in the air like they're toys."

Shootings in Cincinnati are at a 10-year high, according to a report given to city council's Law and Public Safety Committee Tuesday.

Police were seeking a male suspect that fled the scene in a red Ford. They considered the suspect to be armed and dangerous.

This story has been updated to remove a quote from Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell regarding the number of recent homicides in the city. The figure he cited was not correct. In fact, four shooting deaths have occurred in the last 10 days.