YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A man charged with wounding three people during a shooting at a South Side bar will be pleading self-defense.

Lynn Maro, the attorney for Machai Cheatham, 22, Thursday filed a motion in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ahead of a Nov. 27 trial before Judge John Durkin stating her client’s defense.

Cheatham, of Youngstown, is charged with three counts of felonious assault, inducing panic and illegal possession of a firearm in liquor permit premises.

Cheatham is charged with a December 4 shooting at 3229 South Ave. Reports said Cheatham was arrested after shots were fired at about 2:10 a.m. inside and three people were wounded. Reports said a fight inside the bar preceded the shooting.

Cheatham was caught running away by a police officer working security. Reports said Cheatham had a gun in his hand but dropped it when he was stopped by an officer.

According to police at the time of the shooting, none of the victims were armed.

Maro said in her motion she has records from city police of shootings between 2016 and 2022 involving either Cheatham’s home or vehicle and also of a prior incident between Cheatham and a victim in the case. Her motion does not go into detail about what that incident was.

Cheatham was free on $150,000 bond he posted December 14 after a bond reduction hearing in municipal court before his case was bound over to a grand jury, but that bond was revoked Feb. 9 by Judge Durkin after the case was indicted by a grand jury.

Prosecutors made the request to revoke Cheatham’s bond because of a Feb. 8 arrest by Youngstown police on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle. Details of that case are not available.