19-year-old accused of fatally shooting man in Oberlin

LORAIN COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO) - Oberlin police arrested a 19-year-old Oberlin man for a deadly shooting Monday evening.

According to police, Xavier Smith shot and killed Donte Noble, 31, of Lorain in the 100 block of South Pleasant St.

Police were called to the street for a report of shots fired around 6 p.m.

“It’s quiet here,” said neighbor Logan Huston. “This is a peaceful town. To see something like this happen, it’s just sad.”

Logan Huston lives a couple of houses down from the scene of the shooting on South Pleasant Street in Oberlin. He says he had just gotten home from work when he noticed all of the flashing lights.

“Once I came outside and I saw all the ambulance, the police, I saw the fire department out here, and then when they were putting the yellow tags out man, I knew it wasn’t good,” Huston admitted.

Oberlin Police arrested 19-year-old Xavier Smith for the murder of 31-year-old Donte Noble.

Neighbors said Smith lived in the home with his sister and her three kids and that Noble was the father of one Smith’s sister’s children but did not live with them.

Police said it started out as an argument between Noble and Smith but things escalated.

When officers arrived, Noble was found lying in a driveway with a gunshot wound to the chest.

EMS transported him to a local hospital where he died from his injuries.

“Two young kids get into it, I really don’t know the specifics of everything you know what I’m saying basically what went on but just for something like this to happen, it ain’t right,” Huston said.

Several neighbors told 19 News they have seen the victim; Donte Noble threaten and assault the shooter’s sister on more than one occasion.

19 News discovered the victim did have an extensive criminal record that goes back nearly a decade and the Lorain man’s record includes at least three domestic violence convictions.

Lorain County court records show Noble took a plea deal on a DV charge in 2021 and pleaded guilty to attempted domestic violence against the mother of his child.

The only previous criminal charges we could find on the shooter was one arrest earlier this year for improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle. That case is still pending.

Huston knew the siblings.

“We socialize every once in a while,” said Huston. “I mean they was good people, nothing wrong, nice family.”

19 News asked police if the victim had assaulted the shooter’s sister prior to his death and they told me they could not confirm or deny that.

Smith was taken into custody shortly after the shooting. He is charged with murder and felonious assault and is now locked up in the Lorain County Jail.

Smith will be in Oberlin Municipal Court on Wednesday.