Detectives say drug deal led to shooting at area motel

8/17/2004

An East Toledo man was shot in the side during what Lucas County sheriff s detectives are calling a drug deal at a Springfield Township motel.

Phillip Simmons, 35, of McKinley Avenue was in serious condition last night in Medical College of Ohio Hospitals. He was shot just after midnight yesterday at the Knight s Inn Motel, 1520 South Holland-Sylvania Rd., during an incident involving a local woman and two men from North Carolina.

Deputies found him lying in the parking lot outside Room 501, where the shooting occurred. He told police the woman called him and asked him for a ride, and when he entered the room, one of the men confronted him and an argument ensued. After one man hit him in the head with a bottle, the other fired two shots from a 380-caliber handgun at him, he told police.

One bullet missed his head, but the other struck him in the side, Detective Ernie Lamb said.

Mr. Simmons said he passed out when he went to his car. Witnesses came outside, and the suspects fled in a white Chevrolet Blazer with a North Carolina license plate.

Inside the victim s car, authorities found a trash bag with 20 small bags containing about an ounce each of suspected marijuana and two small bags of suspected crack cocaine. They also found a bag of suspected crack cocaine on the floor in the motel room. Mr. Simmons said the drugs were not his, the detective said.