Brett Milam, and Patrick Reddy

Cincinnati

A Madisonville man allegedly shot another man and a 2-year-old boy in Madisonville Wednesday.

Ernest Cephas, 35, was arrested on two counts of felonious assault by the Cincinnati Police Homicide Unit Thursday morning.

Cephas allegedly shot the man and infant with a handgun on Wetsel Avenue near Chandler Street at about 5:39 p.m. At the time, police said he was driving in a green, four-door vehicle with the windshield or back windshield possibly shot out.

Both the male and the two-year-old boy have serious, potentially life-threatening injuries and are in critical condition, police said.

"It's tragic. I've got a small child shot," Assistant Chief Paul Neudigate said to the press shortly after the shooting. "It's just unacceptable."

One victim was located inside the vehicle seen below with the open doors and one outside of it.

"We need the community's support," Neudigate said. "Someone has to be held accountable for this. No ifs, ands or buts about it."

A criminal record involving mostly drugs

Cephas has a criminal record dating back to a 1999 ticket for possession of marijuana, which he paid for.

Over the next 10 years, Cephas spent time in and out of the Department of Corrections for criminal damaging and endangerment (he threw a brick through a window), trafficking in cocaine and possession of cocaine, for which he was sentenced three years. By May 2010, he was sentenced to another three years for aggravated trafficking in ecstasy.

Cephas was due in court at 9 a.m. Friday to decide charges from earlier in the year: drunk driving and possession of heroin. In December 1999, Cephas had his first charge for drunk driving.

He faced one count of resisting arrest, which was later dismissed in Dec. 2010.

Cephas was arraigned on Thursday morning relating to the two felonious assault charges with a $500,000 bond for each count and is due in court again for those on July 25.