By Jennifer Edwards
and Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writers

MILLVALE - A 15-year-old high school student was gunned down in Millvale, and investigators were working to determine a motive.

Steven Milford was shot about 10:20 p.m. Monday in the 3200 block of Moosewood Court in Millvale, a public housing complex near Beekman Road. He did not live there, said a spokeswoman for Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority.

Milford is the youngest person to be slain in the city this year.

His great-grandmother said Tuesday she didn't know why he was killed, or why he was in Millvale with a male cousin she declined to name.

"My phone has been ringing all day. I am just trying to deal with it," said Betty Ann Milford of Walnut Hills, who has been raising Milford and his two brothers, ages 18 and 16, for three years.

"He was such a good boy, always laughing and cheerful," she said. "He was still a baby."

The teen's killing was one of two Monday, bringing the city's homicide total to 43, four more than at this time last year, an increase of just over 10 percent. Last year, 75 people were killed in the city, the most in 26 years. The killings were the first in the city since July 6.

This year, two other teens have been slain. Dionta Lamar Brown, 16, was found dead in February in a Roselawn apartment. Anthony Frakes, 17, was shot to death in March in Over-the-Rhine.

Police continued Tuesday trying to find the relatives of another victim whose body was found Monday in an Elm Street apartment in Over-the-Rhine.

Milford would have been a sophomore at Aiken Public Service Learning High School in College Hill this fall, said Ken Wilson, a spokesman for Cincinnati Public Schools.

Cincinnati police went to Millvale on a report of shots fired and were told that someone had taken the victim to Good Samaritan Hospital. Milford died there.

"I hope they catch who did it," Milford's great-grandmother said. "When I called last night, they said they didn't have (a) suspect yet."

Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher said at least seven people stepped forward to help police, something he wished happened in all homicide investigations.

In Millvale Tuesday, those who said they saw parts of the shooting did not want to be named, saying they feared retribution.

Dozens of people, they said, were around Monday when Milford was shot. Some said he was an innocent bystander caught up in a shooting intended to be payback for an earlier homicide. The gunfire, some said, erupted after two days of tension in the area.

One woman said the gunshots were fired from inside a blue car driving along Moosewood. It was unclear where Milford was when he was shot.

"I heard 'Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!'" said Trinity Hutchinson, 18. "They weren't from here, so it shouldn't have been out here."

Other neighbors said they were too afraid to go outside after the shooting to find out what happened.

"I thought I would get caught up in the crossfire or something," said Sarah Preston, 18, who is seven months pregnant and moved to Millvale a month ago. "I am moving. I already know that's how it is out here."

Reporter Sharon Coolidge contributed to this report. E- mail jedwards@enquirer.com.