A 25-year-old man was shot to death in Barberton early Monday morning while trying to help a friend who was involved in a domestic dispute with her husband, police said.
"It's senseless for something like this to happen," said Barberton Officer Marty Eberhart. "He's being a friend and then he ends up dead."
It happened just before 1:30 a.m. near East Paige Avenue and 3rd Street Northeast. Officers responded to the area after receiving multiple 911 calls reporting shots fired.
When officers arrived, they found the victim, Nathan M. Flight, of Canton, down on the sidewalk. He had been shot multiple times. EMS transported the man to a nearby hospital, where he later died.
The suspect, Justice J. Oney, 24, of Barberton, was located nearby in a car and arrested, police said. Officers found a gun in the vehicle.
"He actually pepper-sprayed the guy and then shot him multiple times," Eberhart said.
Following his arrest, Oney was taken to Barberton City Jail and is being held on a murder charge, police said. He has an arraignment scheduled on Tuesday in Barberton Municipal Court.
Police said the woman left the home after getting into an arguments with Oney.
Eberhart said the woman called Flight who drove up from Canton and met her about a block away from where she lives.
However, within minutes, Oney approached them and shot and killed Flight, according to Eberhart.
The woman was not injured. She ran away and banged on the front doors of several homes to get help.
The sound of gunfire and the police response was captured on multiple neighborhood doorbell cameras.
Liz Torres, who lives nearby, said was unable to fall back to sleep following the tragedy and her heart breaks for the victim's family.
"I heard probably seven, eight maybe more gunshots and a woman screaming and we don't get that around here," Torres said. "It's very tragic."
She also believes the situation could have ended even worse.
"I'm glad she was able to get away," Torres said. "I truly feel that if it wasn't for the help of our neighbors and the quick response of the police, there could have been two tragedies last night."
Haven of Rest Ministries in Akron confirmed Flight worked there in 2019 taking in donations.
