Two Springfield New Year’s holiday shootings related, not random, police say

Three people now face charges in shootings that left one dead, three others injured

Credit: Bill Lackey

Credit: Bill Lackey

A third person has been charged in connection to shootings that occurred on South Race Street over the New Year’s holiday weekend, Springfield police reported Tuesday afternoon.

Lee Mays, 40, of Springfield, was charged with felonious assault and having weapons under disability after a shooting that injured a teenager and a 75-year-old woman. The shooting was reported in the 100 block of South Race Street on Monday – the day after a fatal shooting was reported in the same block.

The two shootings — which left one man dead and three other people injured — are believed to be “related” and “not random,” Springfield Police Division Chief Allison Elliott said in a press conference on Tuesday.

“We’re understanding that this is a tragic incident, and there’s a grieving family and a grieving community,” she said.

Mays was taken into custody on Monday after a Springfield police Special Response Team searched two houses on South Race Street and Oakland Place.

Both people injured in the Monday shooting were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Springfield Regional Medical Center, according to Elliott.

Two suspects were apprehended on Sunday in connection to a shooting that happened on South Race Street earlier that day.

Lawaun Bass, 33, and Nefertari Alexander, 32, both of Columbus, were arraigned in Clark County Municipal Court on Tuesday with charges in connection to the Sunday shooting that claimed the life of 41-year-old Darryl Stamper Jr.

Springfield police and medics responded around 7:30 a.m. Sunday to a home in the 100 block of South Race Street, where they found Stamper with life-threatening injuries. He was taken to Springfield Regional Medical Center, where he died. Another unnamed woman was treated on the scene, according to police.

Bass is being held on a bond of $750,000 for charges of tampering with evidence and improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation, while Alexander is being held on a bond of $50,000 for charges of complicity to improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation and tampering with evidence.

It’s unclear why the suspects from Columbus were in the area. Police are also working with the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office to gather more details about the relationships between the victims and the suspects as of Tuesday, Elliott said on Tuesday.

Bass, Alexander and Mays were all listed as inmates at Clark County Jail as of Tuesday afternoon.

The Springfield Police Division asks that those with information related to the two shootings call 937-324-7716.

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