FRANKFORT, Ohio — A pre-dawn 911 call about an assault in progress ended with one man dead and a 21-year-old charged with murder in this Ross County village on Friday, November 13, 2026, according to a news release issued by Ross County Sheriff George W. Lavender Jr. and reported by local outlets covering the Chillicothe area.

Source: Hopewell Heritage Headlines (Ross County Sheriff's Office release)

Deputies were dispatched at approximately 5:20 a.m. to a residence at 139 Temple Street in Frankfort after the Sheriff's Office received a 911 call reporting an assault in progress at the home. On arrival, deputies found a 31-year-old man lying in the front yard of the residence.

Victim taken to Adena, pronounced dead

The man in the yard was identified as Brandon Davis, 31. He was transported to Adena Regional Medical Center — the regional hospital in Chillicothe, the Ross County seat, roughly a half-hour's drive from Frankfort — where he was pronounced deceased. His body is now in the care of the Ross County Coroner's Office, which will determine the cause and manner of death, the sheriff's release said. Authorities have not publicly described Davis's injuries, and no weapon has been described in the information released so far.

Source: N'Cuffs (Ross County Sheriff's Office)

Arrest within hours: Ewing booked on a murder charge

Following the initial investigation at the scene, deputies arrested 21-year-old Ajani Maurice Ewing in connection with the incident. Jail records cited in local reporting show Ewing was booked into the Ross County Jail at approximately 8:52 a.m. on Friday — about three and a half hours after the 911 call — charged with murder, a felony offense, and held without bond. The charge is an allegation: Ewing is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

The sheriff's office has not said what led to the confrontation, whether the two men knew each other, or where Ewing was taken into custody. The circumstances surrounding the deadly assault have not yet been publicly detailed, and authorities have not released information regarding what led to the confrontation, local reporting of the release noted.

A small village, a county investigation

Frankfort is a small village in Concord Township in western Ross County, in south-central Ohio — a community of roughly a thousand residents along State Route 550, west of Chillicothe. In a village of that size, a homicide investigation is a rare and closely watched event, and Friday's case is being handled by the county sheriff's office, which provides law-enforcement coverage for the village and the surrounding townships, with the county coroner responsible for the medical side of the investigation.

What happens next

Under Ohio process, a felony murder charge filed by complaint is followed by an initial court appearance and, for an indictment to issue, presentation to a Ross County grand jury; Ewing is being held without bond in the meantime, according to the jail records cited in local reporting. The coroner's determination of cause and manner of death is expected to be a key piece of the case file, and the sheriff's office says its investigation is continuing. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the coroner's findings or court filings add verified detail.