Fremont man sentenced in Walmart shooting incident

FREMONT — A Fremont man was recently sentenced in connection with a December 2024 shooting at a Walmart parking lot. At a court hearing on Monday, Navarea Cooks-McKinney, 19, 1600 block Dickinson St., was convicted on one count of felonious assault, a second-degree felony. On April 14, Cooks-McKinney pleaded guilty to the single charge in exchange for one count of having weapons while under disability and tampering with evidence, each a third-degree felony to be dismissed. Sandusky County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeremiah Ray sentenced Cooks-McKinney to serve five to seven-and-a-half years in prison. Cooks-McKinney received a credit of about six months served in jail, according to court records. Background Fremont police arrested two people in connection with a report of a possible disturbance involving a firearm in the Walmart parking lot on Dec. 2, 2024. In a statement released shortly after the incident by Fremont police Chief Derek Wensinger on Facebook, the incident that occurred in the Walmart parking lot involved six people in two separate vehicles. A release issued Tuesday by the Sandusky County Court of Common Pleas included additional information on what occurred. "McKinney fired a handgun at another individual during an altercation in the parking lot of the Walmart in Fremont," the release states. "The victim was not struck, but the act was found to be deliberate and posed significant risk to public safety." Cooks-McKinney and Johnathan D. Matthews, 19, of Fostoria, Ohio, were both arrested in connection with the shooting. Matthews has a pre-trial hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. next Monday, according to court records.