YOUNGSTOWN City razes house from which shooting terrorized neighbors

By Wednesday afternoon, the rubble should be cleared away and the lot ready to be graded.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- James Easton breathed a sigh of relief this morning when a demolition crew knocked down a vacant house that shielded neighborhood thugs who fired several bullets into his North Side home over the weekend.
But he worries his neighbors may be next in the line of fire.
Demolition of the house "might help me, but some of my neighbors are even more scared now because the house blocked bullets from hitting their homes."
Now, he said, neighbors screened by the house could be in the direct line of fire.
"I might even feel a little guilty [for insisting the house be torn down] if something happens to one of the neighborhood kids," he said. "The lady across the street made her kids play inside after church Sunday because of all the gunfire."
Complained for years
A 55-year-old truck driver, Easton said he has complained for years about people loitering and firing guns from the house at 1225 Margaret St. Despite efforts to correct the situation, Easton said two former police chiefs were unable to solve the problem.
After discovering three new holes Sunday where bullets penetrated an exterior wall of his house and lodged in a bedroom and the bathroom, Easton had had enough.
He told The Vindicator about the ongoing problem and threatened to "sit in the mayor's office until they do something."
By 9:30 this morning, street department workers were loading rubble -- all that was left of the vacant house -- into a dump truck. By Wednesday afternoon, the rubble should be cleared away and the lot ready to be graded, said John Rossetti, housing and demolition inspector for the city.
"This house has been on the list for demolition for a while," Rossetti said. It was moved to the top of the list after numerous complaints about the property led authorities to believe it needed to come down immediately because of the threat it posed to safety.
Although Easton doesn't expect the shooting to stop, he said that with the house gone, he can at least look out to see who the shooters are. He is convinced that he already knows who they are, but without proof, he can't do a thing.
No other neighbors in the immediate area were home when the house came down, but Rossetti said several drove past. "They said, 'Thank you' and 'God Bless you.'"
McKelvey's view
Mayor George McKelvey said he has been working with neighborhood residents for years to help solve the problem. But, he said, the vacant house is not the root of the problem.
Troublemakers, McKelvey said, "are like weeds in a lawn. They keep coming back." Those that terrorized neighbors from this house, he said, will simply relocate.
Easton plans to meet with the city prosecutor to find out how to proceed, and hopes to have charges filed against those responsible for the shootings.
The mayor contends that problems persist in part because sentences for those convicted of such crimes don't receive tough sentences.
Although no one has been arrested in the shootings, McKelvey said investigations are continuing and that the police have several suspects.
kubik@vindy.com