A man was hospitalized after being shot in Cincinnati's Avondale neighborhood Monday night, and the suspect who opened fire remained at large as of Tuesday morning. Officers were called to the area near Burnet and Rockdale avenues around 9 p.m. and found the victim suffering a gunshot wound, though his exact injuries were described differently across early reports.
Cincinnati police officers responded to the 300 block of Rockdale Avenue just after 9 p.m. Monday after receiving a report of a shooting, according to WLWT. That station reported the man suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach and was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. WKRC, however, reported that the man was shot in the chest, a detail that conflicts with the stomach-wound account given by WLWT and Local 12. Cincinnati police told WKRC the man was alert and talking after the shooting.
Police described the suspect as wearing a black mask, gray sweatshirt and shorts, per WLWT's reporting, and said he had fled the scene before officers arrived. WKRC likewise reported that Cincinnati police had no immediately available suspect information as the investigation got underway. No arrest or additional details about what led to the shooting had been released as of the most recent reporting.
A Familiar Address for Gun Violence
This is not the first shooting to draw police to Avondale this year. In June, a shooting at Reading Road and Hutchins Avenue left three people shot and hospitalized, according to Local 12. Stray bullets from that incident shattered the windows of a car and several retail stores and damaged a nearby gas meter, prompting a shutdown of the area, the outlet reported. A 19-year-old, Lysias Yarbough, was later arrested and faces a felonious assault charge in connection with that shooting.
WCPO also reported on that same June shooting at Reading Road and Hutchins Avenue, in which three people were shot, two with non-life-threatening injuries and one in serious condition, according to WCPO. In that case, police said they did not have suspect information or details about what led up to the shooting, the station reported.
Citywide Shootings Trending Down
Monday's shooting comes even as Cincinnati's overall gun violence numbers have been improving. Shootings fell from 313 incidents in 2023 to 296 in 2024, then dropped to 241 in 2025, the city's lowest total in three years, according to FOX19. The number of minors shot also edged down slightly, from 42 in 2024 to 41 in 2025, while gun-violence deaths ticked up from 66 to 67 over the same span, per the station's reporting.
Despite that citywide decline, Avondale has remained one of the neighborhoods most affected by shootings, recording 74 incidents over the three-year period covered by the city data cited by FOX19. No suspect has been identified in Monday's shooting, and police have not released information about what led to the gunfire near Rockdale Avenue.
