20-Year-Old Woman Who Shot Employee During ‘Vicious Assault’ at Downtown Cincinnati Lounge Cleared of Homicide, Still Faces Concealed Weapon Charge

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CINCINNATI, OH — Prosecutors have declined to file homicide charges against Deryka Minor, a 20-year-old woman who shot and killed an employee inside Memories Lounge in downtown Cincinnati early Sunday, Nov. 1. Prosecutors say surveillance video supports her claim that she acted in self-defense. Minor still faces a carrying concealed weapon charge for having the gun inside the club.

The man who died was Kameiro Blair-Martin, as reported by WKRC. At Minor’s first court appearance after the shooting, Cincinnati police Detective David Gregory said she has been cleared in Blair-Martin’s death. “As far as the homicide, she’s been cleared,” Gregory said. Prosecutors and the defense agreed in court that Minor acted in self-defense.

Gregory said Minor “was the victim of a pretty vicious assault.” Investigators said the employee who died was the aggressor.

Her attorney, Clyde Bennett, put it bluntly. “She’s a victim. She was beaten pretty extensively and pretty viciously and did what she had to do to save her life. If she wouldn’t have done that, she’d be dead right now,” Bennett said.

The lounge tells the start of the night differently. In a statement, the general manager of Memories Lounge said Minor was asked to leave the bar. According to the manager, that led to a fight, and then Minor pulled out a gun.

Those two accounts do not have to cancel each other out. A bar has every right to ask someone to leave. Being escorted out is not a threat of death or serious bodily harm. A sustained, vicious beating can be. Criminal defense attorney Shane Herzner of Shark Law made a similar point. He said establishments have the right to remove someone, but that right has limits. He added that the evidence described in court suggests the confrontation escalated beyond simply escorting someone out. He also called the speed of the decision unusual. “It is a very serious situation for them to decide this quickly that it was self-defense,” Herzner said.

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The concealed weapon charge is an accusation, not a conviction, and Minor is presumed innocent on it. No court record or official statement from police or prosecutors was available to me. This account rests on WKRC’s reporting of the hearing and the detective’s testimony.

Every carrier should take the split in this case seriously. Being cleared in the shooting did not make the gun charge go away. Whether you were justified in using a firearm and whether you were legally allowed to have it where you were are two separate questions, and the law answers them separately. A good shoot does not fix a bad carry. Part of a real carry mindset is knowing Ohio’s concealed carry laws before you walk into a bar or club with a gun, not learning them at your arraignment.

Read the original story: 20-Year-Old Woman Who Shot Employee During ‘Vicious Assault’ at Downtown Cincinnati Lounge Cleared of Homicide, Still Faces Concealed Weapon Charge