'We are all genuinely terrified'
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio - An investigation is underway after about a dozen gunshots were fired as an after-prom party broke up at a short-term rental house, according to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.
It happened just after midnight Sunday on Grenada Court at the corner of Cordoba Drive in Liberty Township, near the Monroe border, Sgt. Joe Banks confirms. Someone inside a car fired in the direction of the home shortly after the homeowner arrived to stop the party, according to Sgt. Banks.
Ring camera and other video footage shared with FOX19 NOW show gunfire toward the house from at least one vehicle as it drove westbound on Cordoba Drive and passed the house. Sgt. Banks said “probably somewhere close to a dozen shots” were fired.
“We found some shell casings outside. It was a lot of shots. ”No one was hit or hurt by the gunfire, according to the sheriff’s office, but residents are upset, angry and scared. More than a dozen young children and several babies are among the families in the new Crescent Moon subdivision, where homes start at $575,000.
Another father, fearing that flying bullets would come through his child’s window, said he shielded her body with his on her bedroom floor.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d build my forever home and have a shooting two houses away,” said another resident, Paul Dittman. They are fed up while the short-term rental continues to operate after the township banned them last year. Shots were fired in the direction of this house on Grenada Court in Liberty Township early Sunday, according to the Butler County Sheriff's Office.
This bullet hole is visible on the house in the 4800 block of Grenada Court in Liberty Township. Deputies responded to the home twice in about an hour late Saturday into early Sunday, according to dispatchers and Sgt. Banks.
“We got our first call there about an hour before the shots were fired. We responded there about an hour earlier for a noise complaint. We didn’t see anything crazy, very little alcohol was there,” Sgt. Banks told FOX19 NOW early Sunday.
“They told them to keep it down. They left them because everything was good.
Then, about an hour later, that’s when we got the call for shots fired. ” Before the shots were fired, one of the neighbors called the homeowner about the party, so he went to his house to break it up, Sgt. Banks said. When deputies arrived, Sgt.
Banks said the man told them he had rented the house out for the weekend, but was unaware it was being used for an after-prom party.
“We expected there to be some parties because it was prom night,” Sgt. Banks said.
“The few juveniles that we got to talk to as they were leaving, they said they were from prom for an after-prom party. They never did say specifically which school.
“The juveniles we talked to said they were from Cincinnati. Most of the people we had contact with were from Cincinnati. They were all juveniles at the party. An adult was there at some point with the kids.
”Dittman and other residents estimate 75 to 100 people were at the party. They felt like their concerns weren’t taken as seriously as they should have been by the deputies who initially responded to the noise complaint. They were surprised the party was permitted to continue, and said it just grew loud again when deputies left.
“The deputy stopped and talked to me and said, ‘Hey, I don’t see anything happening that’s illegal. If it gets loud or noisy, call us, we’ll come back out,’” Dittman recalled.
“And then he left the neighborhood about 11:30 . Thirty minutes later, things started getting really loud again out front, and right around is when the shots were fired and everyone started calling 911.
“At first I heard probably four or five and then there was a short break and then probably four or five more further up the street in the neighborhood. ”Won’t be tolerated’: Sheriff JonesAdditional patrols were visible in the neighborhood Sunday night into Monday. Detectives were out Monday morning talking to residents and scouring for evidence.
“I’m glad no one was injured,” the sheriff said. “There’s no reason for kids to come from other towns to this small neighborhood and cause chaos. “Shots being fired will not be tolerated anywhere in Butler County, let alone in a residential neighborhood like this with families and children. I won’t stand for neighborhoods here being terrorized.
” When detectives were in the neighborhood earlier Monday, they spent time at the short-term rental with the man identified by deputies and residents as the homeowner who broke up the party. He declined to comment when reached by phone Monday afternoon. Liquor bottles and cans littered front lawns, along with shoes abandoned by people fleeing bullets. Dittman found a cell phone and sunglasses in his backyard Sunday afternoon as he showed FOX19 NOW his property line.
He alerted the sheriff’s office, which sent a deputy out to retrieve the items as part of the investigation. Paul Dittman found this cell phone and pair of sunglasses in his backyard Sunday afternoon. They were turned over to the Butler County Sheriff's Office. Township records show residents have complained about the short-term rental for the past two years.
Before shots rang out over the weekend, township trustees were already scheduled to confer behind closed doors with legal counsel Tuesday night about the zoning violations, according to Township Administrator Caroline McKinney. Liberty Township began banning residential rentals under 30 days last year, but residents and Township Trustee Tom Farrell say this one continues to be an issue, as well as another house next door owned and operated by the same company.
Township records show Dittman provided the township with photos from a party at the home that clogged their streets with cars back in the summer of 2024.
“As I shared via texted pictures, when these homes are rented, the renters have no regard for our community,” Dittman wrote in an email to Farrell later that year. “The photos show our entire subdivision full of vehicles for some wedding/party. Vehicles completely blocked the neighborhood. People were sleeping on the front lawn all night.
Trash gets left all over the street.
“Since we’ve moved in, we’ve had issues where the place gets rented and then randomly, I’ll come home from work and our street is full of vehicles. “I understand people have a right to do what they wish with their home, however, it shouldn’t infringe on the safety/security of a community. ” Dittman said he’s not surprised but is sickened that this has escalated to gunshots being fired, putting all their families at risk.
“I don’t know what to think now,” he said Sunday, standing in front of his house with his neighbors gathered nearby. “We all have kids. There are probably 20 kids under the age of 15 here. I have a 7-year-old little girl,” he said, choking up.
“It’s hard. ” He called for state regulations for short-term rentals to keep them out of residential neighborhoods.
“These need to be regulated. You don’t know who’s coming or going. You don’t know who’s renting. Are they criminals?
Are they not criminals?
“Are they 150 kids or 100 kids having a wild party having shootings? These are residents that work hard $600,000, $700,000 homes. No one wants this in their neighborhood. This is ridiculous.
”“It’s a party house,” he told FOX 19 NOW.
“No one wants to live next door to a hotel after purchasing their forever home. “Liberty Township has addressed the short‑term rental issue, and the Board unanimously voted to prohibit them. There is a defined enforcement process we are required to follow, and this property has been notified and has clearly chosen not to comply.
“Liberty Township is a bedroom community. When someone buys a home here, it is reasonable to expect that their neighbor will be another resident — not a revolving business operation. Short‑term rentals frequently function as party houses, with no accountability and little regard for the families who live next door. That is not acceptable in a family‑oriented residential neighborhood.
“I will not waver on enforcing our short‑term rental ban. As long as it is in place, we will continue to take every step available to uphold the rules and ensure compliance. ”One resident tells FOX19 NOW a group of five teenagers turned up on her back deck as they fled the gunshots. The resident said she gave the girls water to help one of them, who was pepper-sprayed so badly that she could not open her eyes.
She said she also gave the teens blankets and one a sweatshirt to warm up as temperatures dipped into the mid-30s.
“They were crying and traumatized. They said a man came in the house and was pepper-spraying people,” the resident recalled.
“The girl who was pepper-sprayed badly couldn’t open her eyes, and her face was red. Her friends poured water on her face. ”Both high schools held proms at separate locations Saturday night. The resident said she felt like the teens who sought shelter on her back deck were from out of the area because they had no idea where they were as they tried to get a ride home.
One of their mothers arranged for them to be picked up in an Uber, and they left, according to the resident. She said she felt bad for the teens because they got into a situation out of their control, but at the same time, she was guarded and upset about the shots being fired so close to home.
Another neighbor who lives in older homes in front of Grenada Court and Cordoba Drive, Ryan Haddix, says this was a party after Lakota East’s prom Saturday night. He said his son, an 18-year-old senior at Lakota East, was invited to the party ahead of time, along with a lot of his classmates.
“His group - his girlfriend and the other couple they were with -made the decision not to attend the party, but they had multiple friends who also attend Lakota East who were there,” Haddix tells FOX19 NOW. “He told me there’s usually after-prom parties, but this was one of the only ones this year and it was definitely the most advertised, and that’s why it got so big and out of control. “These are $500,000 and $600,000 houses.
Short-term rentals should not even be an option in a neighborhood like that. We’re building half million houses in Liberty Township and putting them up on Vrbo? There’s children that live in those houses.
“What if a bullet goes through the wall of one of those homes? This stuff doesn’t happen in Liberty Township. ”
Fox19 19 Fox News Channel Cincinnati ‘War Zone’: Shots Fired At After-Prom Party In Lib Vrbo Rental Turns Into War Zone With Shots Fired Short Term Rentals Where Parties And Shootings Occ Shootings And Parties At Short Term Rentals Airbnbs Vrbo Violence At Short Term Rentals Liberty Township Shots Fired Aftre Prom Party Lakota East High School Princeton High School Prom Shots Fired At After Prom Party On Grenada Court Crescent Moon Subdivision Grenada Court Cordoba Drive Butler County Sheriff's Office Butler County Liberty Township Liberty Township Trustee Tom Farrell Liberty Township Shots Fired After Prom Party Lakota East Princeton High School Lakota East High School Shots Fired At Prom Party Shootings At Short Term Rentals Shootings At Vrbos
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