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Murder suspect captured
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Wilks
YOUNGSTOWN
Less than 24 hours after 20-year-old Ororo Wilkins was shot dead on a North Side porch, police have the suspected shooter in custody and a theory on why the deadly shots were fired.
U.S. Marshals Task Force members took Willie Wilks, 41, of Youngstown, into custody after a short vehicle and foot pursuit Wednesday afternoon. Police found a handgun in the vehicle he was driving, but they do not believe that is the gun used to kill Wilkins and wound Alexander Morales Jr. one day earlier.
Wilks is accused of driving to a home in the 700 block of Park Avenue and opening fire, killing Wilkins, who was holding a small child at the time, and wounding Morales, who is still recovering in the hospital.
Officers Gerard Slattery and Art Carter spotted Wilks driving a gray minivan on the city’s South Side sometime before 2 p.m. and began to follow the vehicle. The officers called for assistance, but Wilks spotted the unmarked car and tried to flee into the Rockford Village housing development on the city’s East Side.
Wilks reportedly jumped out of the minivan and ran into a nearby wooded area, but police eventually arrested him.
The minivan Wilks was driving is registered to the mother of the woman he is accused of killing. Youngstown Detective Sgt. John Perdue said that connection between Wilks and the victim’s mother may have been what set off the events leading up to the shooting.
Wilks is reportedly dating Wilkins’ mother. Perdue said Wilks and the woman’s son, Wilkins’ brother, were involved in an ongoing dispute over Wilks’ treatment of the mother.
Perdue said the two men were almost involved in a fight earlier in the day, and that earlier argument may have boiled over into the shooting.
“This was basically a dispute between the suspect and the victim’s brother,” Perdue said. “He came down there looking for the brother, who was inside the house, so he [Wilks] just hit the house up, even shooting toward the upstairs where the brother was.”
Police believe Wilks used a high-powered AK-47 assault rifle in the shooting. Perdue said it is likely the bullet that killed Wilkins was the same bullet that injured Morales.
Wilks could be arraigned as early as today or by video arraignment Friday. He faces at least one count of aggravated murder as detailed in the warrant for his arrest and possibly other charges.
Mahoning County court records show that Wilks has been charged in the past with carrying concealed weapons and illegal possession of a weapon.