5-year-old Ohio boy calls police on cell phone after his mother is shot, killed in home

5-year-old Ohio boy calls 911 after mom is killed

DAYTON, Ohio — A 5-year old boy used a cell phone to call police Friday after someone fatally shot his mother, telling a dispatcher in a clear but scared voice she was dead and begging for someone to come and stay with him.

The boy called 911 shortly after 2 a.m. Friday, and police arriving at the scene soon afterward found the body of a woman who had been shot. The Montgomery County coroner’s office identified the woman as Marquita Brown, 25. The boy told the dispatcher that was his mother’s name.

“My momma is at home dead,” he told the dispatcher when she answered the 911 call.

“Can you come here,” the boy could be heard pleading to the dispatcher on the tape of the emergency call released Friday.

The female dispatcher kept reassuring the boy as he repeatedly asked if she was coming to be with him, telling him that police were on their way. He answered all of her questions clearly, although his voice quavered at times. After telling her he had an 8-year-old brother, he broke down briefly when asked where his brother was.

“I don’t know, but he’s supposed to be here with me,” he sobbed.

The dispatcher kept the boy on the phone until officers arrived, police said.

U.S. marshals on Friday arrested Brown’s boyfriend, Damien Brown, about 11 a.m. at an apartment complex in suburban Dayton on a probation violation unrelated to the shooting, said U.S. deputy marshal Michael Manderano.

Lt. Patrick Welsh said no charges had been filed in the shooting. The coroner’s office had scheduled an autopsy for Friday.

Welsh would not provide additional details on the shooting or comment on a possible motive.

Dayton police Sgt. Michael Pauley told reporters earlier that boy called police after he went upstairs and couldn’t wake his mother up.