Man gets 3 years in barbershop shooting

A Trotwood man was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for firing 14 rounds from a rifle, striking a man in the knee who was getting a haircut last fall at a Dayton barbershop.

Deelaquan Lamar Smith, 20, was sentenced in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court after he pleaded guilty April 14 to felonious assault. In addition to his prison term, he will serve three years of post-release control, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.

Police responded around 1 p.m. Oct. 21, 2021, to the FamFirst BarberShop, 3137 Salem Ave. in Dayton, after two men with gunshot wounds arrived at Kettering Health Dayton, formerly Grandview Medical Center.

One of the men told police he was getting a haircut when Smith, known to him as “Butter,” came in the barbershop and shot him in the leg. He returned fire and shot Smith, according to an affidavit filed in Dayton Municipal Court.

Surveillance video showed Smith enter the barbershop with an AK-47 style rifle under a hooded sweatshirt, police said.

The man getting a haircut “was sitting in the barber’s chair about 10 feet from Deelaquan Smith, who fired 14 times and hit (the man) in the right knee,” the affidavit stated. “Deelaquan was also hit by gunfire and fled the scene with the rifle.”

Smith was indicted in November 2021 for two counts of felonious assault, each with a three-year firearm specification. However, the other charge and specifications were dismissed in exchange for his guilty plea, court records showed.

He had been free on bond pending sentencing but is now held in the Montgomery County Jail.