Damien Canady was a 44-year-old Black man whose life ended in a late-night shooting in Cheviot, a community on the west side of the Cincinnati area, on November 3, 2023. At approximately 10:30 p.m., Cheviot police and officers from Green Township were dispatched to the 3200 block of Phoenix Avenue after receiving a report that someone had been shot. When officers arrived, they found Canady lying in a driveway suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
He was transported to Mercy Health–West Hospital, where he died from his injuries. The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office later classified his death as a homicide.
In the immediate aftermath, investigators released few details about what had happened before the gunfire. Police said they had no suspect information they could publicly release and initially announced no arrests or known motive. They did, however, say that they did not believe the killing was random and did not believe there was an ongoing threat to residents of the surrounding neighborhood. Canady lived in the same block of Phoenix Avenue where the shooting occurred, according to information attributed to the coroner’s office.
As the investigation continued, authorities developed a clearer picture of the attack. Police later said witness accounts and evidence from the scene indicated that Canady had been ambushed as he attempted to enter his home. He was shot multiple times and collapsed in the driveway. Despite the passage of nearly three years, investigators continued working the case, and no publicly identified person had been charged with firing the shots that killed him as of the most recent reporting.
A significant development came in September 2026 when authorities arrested Tamika Steele, Canady’s girlfriend, in Joliet, Illinois. Steele, 44, was taken into custody on September 10 through a joint effort involving Cheviot police and the Joliet Police Department. She was subsequently returned to Hamilton County, Ohio, to face a criminal charge connected with the investigation. Despite some early news descriptions referring broadly to her arrest as being connected to Canady’s murder, later reporting clarified that Steele had not been charged with Canady’s killing. Her charge was one count of tampering with evidence.
According to a police affidavit described in news reports, investigators allege that Steele removed Canady’s cellphone from the crime scene after he was shot. A witness reportedly told investigators that Canady possessed the phone shortly before the shooting. Police later tracked the device to Illinois and said its location corresponded with the location of Steele’s own cellphone before Canady’s phone was eventually turned off. Those allegations formed the basis of the evidence-tampering case against Steele. If convicted of that charge, reporting indicated she could face a potential prison term ranging from nine months to three years.
Steele’s arrest represented the first widely reported criminal charge arising from the investigation, but authorities have drawn an important distinction between allegations concerning the removal of evidence and responsibility for the shooting itself. As of September 2026, Steele was accused of interfering with evidence following Canady’s death, not of being the person who shot him. Police had not publicly announced the identity of the alleged gunman, and no murder charge, trial, or conviction for Canady’s killing had been reported. The homicide investigation remained active as investigators continued seeking information about the ambush and the person responsible for firing the fatal shots.
