Man brought to Hamilton from federal prison has bond set at $1M in gang-related shooting death

Aug. 30—A $1 million bond was set Monday for a second man indicted in June for the 2019 shooting death of a Hamilton teen.

More than four years after Londale Harvey was fatally shot in Hamilton's Lindenwald neighborhood, a Butler County grand jury returned indictments on June 12 against Damone Davis and Tai'je Goolsby, accusing them of his murder.

Davis and Goolsby were indicted for felonious assault, murder, having weapons under disability and discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises in the shooting death of the 18-year-old on Jan. 29, 2019. The charges also include specification that the alleged crimes were committed while Davis and Goolsby were participating in a gang.

Davis, 25 who is incarcerated in federal prison, was sentenced to 60 months in April after pleading guilty to federal charges of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime in US. District Court in Cincinnati.

He was taken from federal prison in Wisconsin for Monday's arraignment in Butler County Common Pleas Court where judge Michael Oster Jr. set his bond at $1 million.

Goolsby, 29, of Hamilton, was taken into custody days after the indictments were handed down and arraigned by Oster, who also set his bond at $1 million. Goolsby is scheduled to be back in court Sept. 25 for a pre-trial hearing.

According to federal court documents, Davis was a leader in one of two rival gang operating in Butler County that was the subject of a task force investigation beginning in 2016.

"Since late 2016 to present, FBI Cincinnati, the Butler County BURN Task Force, Hamilton Police Dept. and the Middletown Police Dept. initiated a multi-agency joint investigation into the RU GANG. The RU GANG is alleged to be a drug trafficking organization that supplies a significant portion of the drugs being sold within Butler County and is also responsible for numerous gang related homicides and acts of violence," according to the court documents.

Hamilton Police identified 40 known profiled members of the RU GANG that was engaged in an ongoing gang turf war with the rival "THIRTY" GANG in the city of Hamilton since 2016,.

"This turf war has resulted in approximately 10 homicides between THIRTY GANG and RU GANG as well as another 48 documented shootings between the two gangs that did not result in any deaths," according to the court documents.

As part of the investigation, Davis was one of three people in a stolen car on in October 2021 that was followed by a Hamilton County narcotics officer after the vehicle did not stop, and eventually wrecked, on Interstate 75 in Cincinnati.

"When Davis was taken into custody, he was found to have a white powder on the bottom of his pants and a large amount of white powder was observed on the passenger floorboard of the vehicle. A field test completed on the powder from the floorboard (by an officer) found the powder to contain fentanyl," according to court records. Multiple weapons were also found in the vehicle.

Davis has previous convictions on state crimes in Butler County for having weapons under disability and participating in a criminal gang.

After the shots were fired that hit Harvey in a car parked near the intersection, a shot was fired into the building at 2501 Pleasant Ave., according to police. A man was in the building but was not injured by the bullet, according to the report.

Residents on Fairview Avenue behind the crime scene that is flanked by a church and barber shop described the shooting as a drive-by with the suspects circling the block before firing shots. The suspects stopped to pick up shell casings after the shooting, witnesses said.

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