Louis Christman, 48, male, died after a single gunshot struck both him and another man during what authorities described as a late-night gun-cleaning session in Harrison Township, just northwest of Dayton, on May 22, 2025. Deputies were dispatched around 12:06 a.m. to a home in the 2200 block of Martin Avenue and found two men with gunshot wounds. Both were taken to Miami Valley Hospital, where Christman was pronounced dead.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office publicly identified him later that morning. Initial reports noted that the bullet was a single projectile that injured both men, and that investigators from the sheriff’s office processed the scene under a search warrant as they examined how the discharge occurred.
Investigators determined the shooting happened while the men were cleaning a handgun at a kitchen table. According to sheriff’s office records summarized in subsequent reporting, the other man present, Joey Williams, told a sergeant that he had removed the magazine and believed the chamber was empty; when he pulled the trigger—a step sometimes taken during disassembly of a Glock-style pistol—the firearm discharged. Christman was hit in the right hand and abdomen, while Williams suffered a wound to his left palm. Friends and family told investigators that the two men were friends and had no problems with each other, details that underscored the accidental nature described by authorities.
Months later, prosecutors filed a negligent homicide case tied to the death. On October 9, 2025, Williams, 57, was charged with one count of negligent homicide in Vandalia Municipal Court, a first-degree misdemeanor in Ohio. Coverage of the filing specifies the same address and sequence of events, and notes a court appearance set for late October. No additional suspects have been named by authorities, and the publicly reported charging documents focus solely on the alleged negligence surrounding the gun-cleaning discharge that killed Christman.
Christman’s death date and location also appear in independent public memorial records tracking shooting fatalities in the Dayton area, which list him among those “lost on May 22, 2025” in Dayton, corroborating the timing and place of the incident reported by local news outlets.
