A Drug Deal Turned Deadly is Pepper Pike's First Homicide in More Than 20 Years

A man was shot and killed in Pepper Pike early Monday morning after a drug deal involving marijuana turned violent, according to police.

The shooting occurred on Fairmount Boulevard, just around the corner from the site of Pepper Pike's last murder, when Sister Joanne Marie Mascha was killed outside Ursuline College in March 1995.

Since then, the quiet town of 6,000 residents had seen almost no violent crime until Monday at 1 a.m., when 24-year-old Solon resident Isaiah Lampkins was shot.

Residents of Pepper Pike, which boasted crime rates less than a quarter of the national average as of 2015, are understandably rattled.

Jason Clayton, who lives close to where the shooting took place, told Cleveland 19 News that he had heard a "loud bang" outside, and that "I was joking with my wife that maybe that was a gunshot."

Three Northeast Ohio men have been arrested and charged in relation to the incident: Matthew Stecher, with voluntary manslaughter and trafficking in drugs, and Kevin Malone and Da'Jon Carouthers, with involuntary manslaughter and armed robbery.

Pepper Pike plans to hold a City Council meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m., and for the first time in more than 20 years, they'll have more than traffic and tree removals to discuss.