911 call in Springfield shooting death: ‘Just had a shootout down there’

One man is dead and two others are seriously injured after two unrelated shootings late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning in Springfield.

Joshua Brown, 26, was shot multiple times in the chest shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday in his apartment in the 1400 block of Delta Road. Brown was transported first to Springfield Regional Medical Center by medics and then flown to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, where he was pronounced dead.

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Raina Beal, 23, was shot in head at the apartment, according to Springfield Police Capt. Michael Varner. A police reports says she was also shot multiple times. She was flown to Miami Valley, where she remained in critical condition on Thursday evening.

Varner declined to comment on if investigators have any suspects in the shooting.

“The investigation is ongoing,” he said.

Recordings of 9-1-1 calls obtained by the Springfield News-Sun show neighbors were concerned about the shootings.

“We just heard some gunfire … They just had a shootout down there,” a caller in the Delta Road apartments says on the recording.

The caller says she was outside when the shooting happened and heard several shots.

“Everyone ran out,” she says on the call.

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Lynne Forsythe lives in the building next to where the shooting happened.

“I saw police lights lit up my apartment and I tried to look out to see where it was coming from,” she said.

She said she’s not surprised by the shooting.

“You hear gunshots all around here all the time … There’s a lot of crime here,” Forsythe said.

Her car has been broken into multiple times, she said. Forsythe doesn’t feel in danger at the apartment complex but she keeps to herself.

Brown’s death is ninth homicide in Springfield this year.

Just a couple of hours later, about midnight Thursday morning, Springfield police were called out to another shooting in the 300 block of Clairmont Avenue.

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Joseph Diehl, 40, was found with a gunshot wound to the stomach. He was flown to Miami Valley Hospital. His condition was unknown by police as of Thursday evening. Diehl was uncooperative with investigators, Varner said.

Diehl called 9-1-1 himself and asked for an ambulance.

“Please hurry. Please,” he says in the call to dispatchers. “I’m bleeding really bad.”

In another 9-1-1 call, a neighbor says she saw a man crying and walking quickly down the street.

“I just heard a gunshot,” the caller says to the dispatcher.

The two shootings don’t appear to be related, Varner said. He declined to release any suspect information in the Clairmont Avenue shooting as well or other details about either case.

“If anyone has any information about either of these incidents, please give us a call,” he said.

Springfield police can be reached at 937-324-7680.

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