A stabbing on a quiet residential street in Centerville sent one person to the hospital Thursday night and ended with police arresting a suspect on the grounds of a nearby trade college. The attack happened around 9 p.m. in the 400 block of Blackstone Drive, according to Centerville Police Department Officer Ryan Turner, and the victim was reported in stable condition at a local hospital.
Details about who exactly was hurt have varied between outlets. Dayton 24/7 Now, citing reporting from WKEF, reported that a woman was stabbed in Centerville. But separate local reporting from WHIO indicated a male victim called 911 around 9 p.m. claiming he had been stabbed by his girlfriend in the 400 block of Blackstone Drive, after which officers arrested a female suspect at nearby Fortis College on East Alex Bell Road, according to WHIO. The discrepancy over the victim's gender remains unresolved, and Centerville police have not publicly clarified which account is accurate.
What is consistent across reporting is that the female suspect was taken into custody and booked into the Montgomery County Jail, per WKEF's reporting. Fortis College operates its Centerville campus at 555 East Alex Bell Road, less than a mile from Blackstone Drive, a nine-acre site that primarily offers nursing and technical education programs, according to the school. That proximity appears to explain how officers were able to locate and arrest the suspect so quickly after the 911 call came in.
A Rare Nighttime Attack in a Low-Crime Suburb
Centerville is a suburban city spanning Montgomery and Greene counties, located roughly 15 minutes south of Dayton with a population just over 24,000 residents as of 2025 census data, according to The Rocky Mountain Collegian. The city maintains a violent crime rate of roughly 0.7 to 1.3 per 1,000 residents as of 2025, well below both Ohio's statewide average of 2.9 per 1,000 and the national average of 4.0 per 1,000, the outlet reported, with property crime accounting for the overwhelming majority of local police calls.
That contrast is stark when set against nearby Dayton, which recorded 1,810 violent crimes in 2024 under FBI Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, compared to just 56 in neighboring Miami Township, according to Data Commons figures. The Blackstone Drive neighborhood itself is a quiet residential corridor within the Centerville City School District, made up largely of single-family homes and duplexes built in the late 1950s and 1960s, per property records reviewed by Redfin.
Potential Charges Under Ohio Law
Neither WKEF nor WHIO has reported what charges, if any, have been formally filed against the suspect. But Ohio law offers a framework for what prosecutors could pursue. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2903.11, stabbing someone or causing serious physical harm with a knife constitutes felonious assault, a second-degree felony carrying two to eight years in prison and fines up to $15,000, according to Ohio statute.
Because initial 911 reports referenced a domestic relationship between the victim and suspect, Ohio Revised Code Section 2919.25 could also come into play. That statute defines domestic violence as knowingly causing physical harm to an intimate partner or household member, a charge that escalates from a first-degree misdemeanor to a higher-degree felony when serious physical harm or prior convictions are involved, per Ohio law. It remains unclear whether prosecutors will pursue felonious assault, a domestic violence enhancement, or both.
Officer Turner, who confirmed details of the stabbing to news outlets, was named Centerville Police Department's Employee of the Year in 2023 and serves the department as a field training officer, technical crash investigator, and drone pilot, according to the department. The Centerville Police Department is led by Chief Matthew Brown, who was appointed to the role in 2018 after more than two decades with the department, WHIO has reported.
For now, the victim's condition, the suspect's exact charges, and the discrepancy over who was stabbed all remain open questions. Centerville police have not issued a follow-up statement clarifying the conflicting early reports, and it is unclear when formal charges will be logged at the Montgomery County Jail.
