Bystander still critical with gunshot

YOUNGSTOWN -- A bystander shot Monday morning at a South Avenue gas mart remains in critical condition today in St. Elizabeth Health Center.
David Cobb Jr., 49, of East Boston Avenue, was shot in the neck around 10 a.m. as he walked toward the mart at 2325 South Ave. to pay for gas he had just pumped into his blue Chevrolet pickup.
He was struck by a stray bullet fired by one of two gunmen who were shooting at each other.
Police said gunfire began after a man driving south on South Avenue slowed to stop, and shouted to a man who had pulled to the gas pumps behind Cobb that he had a gun.
The man behind Cobb, driving a red Chevrolet Cavalier with an Ohio temporary license tag, shouted back that he, too, had a gun.
The man on South Avenue fired up to five rounds; the man in the red Cavalier fired twice using what one witness described as "a blue steel revolver." Both gunmen then fled. The first turned west on Dewey, and the Cavalier sped north on South Avenue.
Witnesses offered conflicting descriptions of the vehicle driven by the first gunman. One described it as a blue-gray Mercury Tracer, another as a small white four-door with a rack on the trunk and possibly a blue stripe running along the side.
One spent round was recovered inside the store on the counter. It had come through the plate glass window near where a clerk was waiting on a customer. No one inside the store was injured.
kubik@vindy.com