A 37-year-old man has been sentenced to six to seven and a half years in prison for shooting a 16-year-old boy outside former Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon's Anderson Township home in March 2023, a case that began when teenagers playing a backyard game with foam dart guns ended up in the middle of real gunfire. Lamonte Brewer pleaded guilty to felonious assault, and Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert C. Winkler handed down the sentence, which will run concurrently with a separate five-year federal prison term Brewer is already serving.
According to FOX19, the teen was shot in the foot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries after Brewer fired 10 to 11 shots from an AK-47-style pistol. The boy was transported to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for treatment. The station reports Brewer faced up to 17 years in state prison before the plea deal, under which Hamilton County prosecutors dropped three other felony charges.
The shooting happened while teenagers were playing “Nerf Wars,” a version of the popular Dart Wars game using foam-dart blasters, outside Mixon's Anderson Township home. Anderson Township contracts its policing through District 5 of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office rather than maintaining its own department, and it was Hamilton County sheriff's deputies who ultimately stopped a black Honda Accord leaving Mixon's property in connection with the shooting.
How the Case Unfolded in Court
Court records cited by the same outlet show Brewer knowingly possessed and used a Zavasta firearm during the shooting; the gun itself was later found in the trunk of the Honda Accord. Brewer was riding as a passenger in that car, which Shalonda Mixon, Joe Mixon's sister, was driving. Shalonda Mixon reportedly told her brother that people were outside with guns before the shooting took place, according to the report.
Brewer's defense attorney, Clyde Bennett II, said his client feared for his life and believed he was under attack from gunfire, adding that Brewer was treated fairly by the outcome. Brewer received credit for 1,062 days already served since his 2023 indictment, and per the same account, he is expected to be released in a couple of years.
Then-Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers said in 2023 that the child's survival was a miracle and that Brewer deserved as many years behind bars as the law allowed. Ohio's felonious assault statute, under Ohio Revised Code § 2903.11, classifies the offense as a second-degree felony carrying a mandatory prison term of two to eight years and fines up to $15,000, according to state law.
Federal Charges Came First
Brewer's state charges were held while federal authorities prosecuted him first. A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Ohio had returned a sealed indictment against Brewer for being a felon in possession of a firearm, leading to his arrest by ATF agents at a local courthouse in July 2023, according to WHIO. During those federal proceedings, Brewer's defense argued his firearm possession met a legal exception for felons facing an imminent threat of death or serious injury, citing recent death threats Mixon had reported.
Brewer ultimately pleaded guilty to a federal unlawful transport of firearms charge in 2025 and was sentenced to five years in federal prison, after facing up to 15 years in federal prison in the Southern District of Ohio. Shalonda Mixon separately pleaded guilty in April 2024 to obstruction of justice for collecting shell casings at the scene and was sentenced to three years of probation, per FOX19's reporting.
Joe Mixon's Legal Exposure Cleared
Joe Mixon himself was never charged in the shooting and did not commit a crime, according to the prosecutor's office. Surveillance video retrieved by Hamilton County Sheriff's deputies under a search warrant showed Mixon was seen carrying a firearm in his backyard, but confirmed he never fired any shots.
The incident still carried consequences for Mixon beyond the criminal case. He privately settled the injured teenager's family's civil legal claim, with the financial terms not publicly disclosed, as Pro Football Rumors reported. Mixon was also traded by the Cincinnati Bengals to the Houston Texans in March 2024 for a seventh-round draft pick, a move that saved the Bengals $6.1 million in salary cap space before Mixon signed a three-year, $27 million extension with Houston, according to NFL.com.
Separately, in August 2023, a Hamilton County Municipal Court judge acquitted Mixon of misdemeanor aggravated menacing following a four-day bench trial over an alleged January 2023 traffic dispute in Cincinnati, an unrelated case that predated the shooting outside his home.
Schools Respond to Dart Wars Trend
In the aftermath, the Forest Hills School District, which includes Anderson High School, issued an official notice to families in March 2024 emphasizing that Dart Wars and Nerf Wars are not school-sponsored activities and are strictly banned on district property. The warning reflected growing concern among local school officials about the popular but unsanctioned student game following the shooting.
With Brewer's state sentencing now complete and running alongside his federal term, and with the civil claim against Mixon resolved, the legal fallout from the March 2023 shooting outside his Anderson Township home appears to have concluded.
