Dawone Cortez Howard, 22, was shot and killed inside an Owensboro apartment on August 14, 2024. Deputies responded to a reported shooting at about 10:07 p.m. and found Howard unconscious in the living room with a gunshot wound to the head; he was taken to Owensboro Health Regional Hospital and pronounced deceased.

Authorities say Howard had been at the apartment with two friends, 21-year-old Cayden Maxwell Moorman and 20-year-old Dalton Kyle Pollard. The Daviess County Sheriff’s Office reports the men were smoking marijuana and handling handguns when one of the firearms discharged, striking Howard. Investigators recovered multiple firearms in the apartment, including one later identified as stolen.

Both companions were taken into custody and interviewed. Moorman was charged with reckless homicide and Pollard was charged with receiving stolen property; both were booked into the Daviess County Detention Center. Howard was remembered as a son, grandson, brother, and fiancé, a Davies County High School alumnus who had been active in football and karate and had volunteered as a firefighter and worked as a jailer. He was an organ donor and enjoyed the outdoors and his truck.

If anyone has information about what happened at the Gateway Drive apartment that night, please come forward.