SOUTH SIDE SHOOTING Search for suspect continues

By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The hunt continued today for a 16-year-old boy suspected of using an assault rifle to kill a boy his age.
The search began about 9:30 a.m. Monday, when police, acting on a tip, surrounded a two-story brick duplex at 3111-3113 Southern Blvd. and used a bullhorn to call to its occupants. The building has no phone.
The tense exercise ended three hours later when Detective Sgt. Scott White followed Bar the police dog into the duplex and let the dog search the place.
Bar's barks could be heard several houses away as he bounded from room to room.
The suspect, who had been seen at the rental property by the landlord last week, was not there.
A friend of the boy's who lives at the apartment came out at 11:20 a.m. in response to prompts from Detective Sgt. Dave Lomax on the bullhorn.
The man walked backward to police with his hands clasped behind his head. He said the boy wasn't in the apartment.
Facing charges: The 16-year-old faces felony charges of shooting into a habitation and receiving stolen property, said Lt. Robin Lees.
Detective Sgt. Ron Rodway said the boy alternates between staying with his mother on Willis Avenue and his father in Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.
Police suspect the boy of using an AK-47 assault rifle to kill Brandon M. Pete, 16, of Willis Avenue in a weekend drive-by shooting.
Lees said officers collected a handgun and an AK-47 from the duplex.
Rodway said Pete and the suspect were feuding.
Shooting scene: Pete was shot several times about 12:30 a.m. Saturday on Sherwood Avenue, west of Hillman Street on the South Side.
Roughly 30 teen-agers gathered around the body, but none would come forward with information except for one teen who gave police the suspect's name, saying he'd overheard it from others in the crowd.
The show of force Monday on Southern Boulevard -- about 15 officers -- attracted about 70 spectators.
Police used cruisers and unmarked cars to block off Southern at East Boston Avenue and at Brooklyn Avenue.
Two FBI agents positioned on a porch across from the duplex used their rifle scopes to keep an eye on movement inside the building.