A man is dead and two brothers are wanted on murder charges after a gunman opened fire from a moving vehicle on North Gettysburg Avenue in West Dayton, more than three months after the shooting that killed 32-year-old Andre Carpenter. Daran Thomas Markell Robinson, 28, and D'Vonte Laquan Robinson, 35, were each charged with two counts of murder and three counts of felonious assault, but as of Wednesday afternoon, neither man was in custody.
According to court documents cited by the Dayton Daily News, Carpenter was shot one time during the early-morning attack. Dayton police responded to reports of gunfire in the 500 block of North Gettysburg Avenue at 4:17 a.m. on May 5, with one 911 caller reporting hearing at least five shots and another saying they heard gunfire without seeing anything. Officers arrived to find a man lying on the ground with an apparent gunshot wound.
Dayton police Lieutenant Eric Sheldon said officers found a man with an apparent gunshot wound at the scene. Carpenter was pronounced dead there, according to the Montgomery County Coroner's Office. Court documents allege that D'Vonte Robinson and Daran Robinson fired a gun from a vehicle, and an affidavit states the brothers knowingly committed felonious assault resulting in Carpenter's murder and death.
A Month of Silence, Then a Public Plea
Weeks passed with no arrests, and by early June, Carpenter's mother and longtime girlfriend went public to press for answers. Speaking to WDTN-TV roughly a month after the shooting, the family described the location near the intersection of Preston Street and North Gettysburg Avenue and urged anyone with information to come forward, well before prosecutors authorized any charges. That appeal came and went without an arrest, and it would be more than two additional months before warrants were finally issued for the Robinson brothers.
Warrants are now out for both men, but the Dayton Daily News reported that neither Daran Robinson nor D'Vonte Robinson was in custody as of Wednesday afternoon. Court records tied to the case are housed at the Dayton-Montgomery County Courts Building at 301 W. Third St., where the charges were filed.
What the Brothers Are Facing Under Ohio Law
Each murder count the Robinsons face carries an indefinite prison term of 15 years to life under Ohio Revised Code § 2903.02 and § 2929.02, with sentencing subject to the state's Reagan Tokes framework and administrative parole reviews, according to Ohio law. The three felonious assault counts add further exposure: under Ohio Revised Code § 2903.11, that second-degree felony is punishable by two to eight years in prison and fines up to $15,000 per count, according to a breakdown from Zukerman Law.
Because the shooting is alleged to have come from inside a moving vehicle, additional statutes may come into play. Discharging a firearm at or into an occupied structure or from a vehicle under Ohio Revised Code § 2923.161 and § 2923.162 is classified as a second- or first-degree felony carrying two to 11 years when physical harm results, per an analysis from Gounaris Abboud LPA. Prosecutors can also seek firearm specifications under Ohio Revised Code § 2941.145, which tack on mandatory consecutive terms of one, three, or six years that cannot be served concurrently with the underlying sentence.
West Dayton's Persistent Violence Problem
The shooting adds to a troubling pattern in the neighborhood surrounding North Gettysburg Avenue. A Dayton Daily News data analysis, cited by researchers at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, found that roughly 80% of Dayton's violent gun crimes causing injury or death in 2024 occurred in the city's West and Northwest neighborhoods. Even as Dayton Police Department statistics showed an overall double-digit drop in violent crime heading into 2026, department leadership has acknowledged gun violence remains a persistent operational challenge, as reported by Dayton 24/7 Now.
To push back against that trend, Dayton police built out a 10-officer Strategic Response Unit and a Real Time Crime Center designed to send rapid intervention teams into active hot spots, the station's report noted. Statewide, Ohio's Violent Crime Reduction Initiative produced 116 felony arrests, 33 felony warrant executions, and 49 recovered firearms across the Piqua District, which includes Dayton and Montgomery County, during 2025, according to the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
Still Wanted
Carpenter's death is one of several recent violent shootings Hoodline has tracked across the Dayton area, including a bullet that grazed a child's head in nearby Harrison Township in July. With Daran Thomas Markell Robinson and D'Vonte Laquan Robinson still unaccounted for, anyone with information is asked to contact the Dayton Police Department's non-emergency line at 937-333-2677 or Miami Valley Crime Stoppers at 937-222-7867, which offers cash rewards for tips leading to an arrest.
