YOUNGSTOWN Suspect sought in drive-by shooting

An eyewitness to the shooting said the South Side neighborhood is getting crazy.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Vince Poyssick pointed to the tree where his neighbor, Don Barnes, tried to take cover.
"It wasn't big enough," Poyssick said. He said he saw Barnes, 28, get shot once in the lower right back around 1:45 p.m. Monday. Barnes was outside near his Parkwood Avenue home on the city's South Side when a car pulled up. A witness reported hearing nine or 10 shots, police said.
Barnes began to run east when shots rang out, then fell on the grassy tree lawn, Poyssick said.
Ten spent shell casings littered the pavement across the street from the house.
Poyssick, a resident of nearby Glenwood Avenue, said, "I hope Don makes it."
Barnes was reported in stable condition in St. Elizabeth Health Center.
Poyssick and Detective Sgt. Daryl Martin said there had been a dispute shortly before the shooting in which a gun was pulled on Barnes at a nearby auto repair business. Poyssick said he could not identify the man.
Threat reported
Martin said the confrontation between Barnes and the suspect occurred after the suspect put his hands on the car of Barnes' sister.
Barnes' sister told police the suspect became angry a few minutes earlier after she jokingly told him to take his hands off her car because she had just washed it. The suspect then got a handgun from his car and threatened to shoot Barnes and his sister if they "ever messed with him again," and drove off, Barnes' sister told police.
Barnes began walking home, and the suspect drove alongside him a few minutes later, Barnes' sister said. A Mill Creek Park police officer, who heard the shots and saw the car leave the scene, gave chase, but the suspect abandoned the car on West Myrtle Avenue and ran north through back yards and escaped, police said. A search of the area by a police dog didn't turn up the man.
The suspect's maroon Grand Am car was found abandoned on Myrtle Avenue, with the right front tire up on the pavement in front of Amazing Grace Tabernacle. The car was towed by police.
A Parkwood Avenue woman who declined to give her name said she was inside her home when she heard several shots.
The woman said the neighborhood is generally quiet.
"Nobody bothers anybody," she said.
A different view
Poyssick saw it differently. He said shots had been fired into his home Saturday, but no one was injured.
Monday's shooting occurred just feet away from the office of Mill Creek MetroParks.
The neighborhood, Poyssick said, "is starting to get crazy."
An 82-year-old man told police that during the shooting Monday he and his 95-year-old sister were in the living room of the residence they share when he heard a loud crash as the gunfire knocked a picture off the living room wall. Police observed a half-inch bullet hole in the living room wall and two bullet holes in the home's exterior.
XContributor: Reporter Peter H. Milliken