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Star News TV
A Lynchburg man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting into a Waffle House restaurant in 2024.
24-year-old Omarian Daikwan Fitch was sentenced for the April 2024 shooting into the business on Wards Road. Fitch pleaded guilty to charges of Aggravated Malicious Wounding of Rosalind Ebelt, Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony, Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Violent Felon, Maliciously Shooting into an Occupied Building, Discharge of a Firearm in Public Causing Serious Bodily Injury, Eluding and Gang Participation. He received a 98-year total prison sentence, with 73 years suspended, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Bethany Harrison. Charges related to a second victim were dismissed after that person's unrelated death, as their testimony was needed to sustain the charges.
Harrison described the incident: on April 21, 2024 at 2:58 a.m., Lynchburg Emergency Communications received several 911 calls about an ongoing assault by mob at the Waffle House on Wards Road, which quickly transitioned to reports that someone was shooting into the building. When police arrived they found two victims suffering from gunshot wounds: 30-year-old Kennija Ware, shot in the leg, and 74-year-old Rosalind Ebelt, who was working security and sustained a gunshot wound to the face. Both were treated at Lynchburg General Hospital. Officers collected nine shell casings outside the building and documented a number of shots that entered the front glass and exited through the back. Security footage identified Fitch as the shooter; prior to the shooting, Fitch and several other members of G5, a local criminal street gang, started an altercation with Ware that turned into a mob assault. Several co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to Assault and Battery by Mob and Criminal Street Gang Participation.
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