Thomas Bell, 16, male, Black/African American, was shot just after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, near Grant Park along the 1600 block of Walnut Street. Officers arrived to find two juveniles struck by gunfire; Bell was rushed to UC Medical Center, where he died of his injuries, while the second victim survived and was later released from the hospital.
Neighbors described the chaos that followed the burst of shots as children scattered from the park, and friends and relatives began a small memorial at the corner where Bell fell.
Early reports captured the shock of a neighborhood that had watched Bell grow up riding bikes and hanging around the park. A cousin remembered him as kind and soft-spoken, sentiments echoed by residents who said the shooting erupted just as kids were leaving after-school programs. By the next day, balloons and handwritten messages marked the spot, and police urged anyone who had seen the shooting to come forward as investigators pieced together what happened on the busy block.
Within eleven days, detectives with Cincinnati Police’s Homicide Unit announced an arrest: 18-year-old Davon Marcum was taken into custody on September 27 and charged with murder in Bell’s killing. A WLWT report noted that surveillance video shown in court allegedly depicts Marcum shooting Bell; a judge set bond at $1 million as the case moved into the courts. Local coverage also reported that the gunfire was described by witnesses as a drive-by, underscoring how quickly the attack unfolded near the park.
Court records summarized in local reports indicate Marcum had been arrested in May on a weapons-under-disability charge and was on community control by July because he was prohibited from possessing a firearm based on a prior felonious-assault conviction. As of late September, he was being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center on the murder charge while investigators continued seeking additional information about the shooting.
