Cousin: Slain man 'a good guy'

Police think the slain man had been loitering the night before.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES --A cousin of a man shot and killed Thursday at the Royal Mall Apartments "didn't think he would be killed so young."
"He was a good guy," Tiera Mullen said of her cousin, Justin Blackwell.
Blackwell, who police said was in his 20s, was killed outside an apartment at the complex, off Vienna Avenue, shortly before 10 a.m.
An autopsy was done at Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital. Police Chief Bruce Simeone said Blackwell was shot multiple times.
Shell casings found
A semiautomatic pistol was apparently used in the slaying, because numerous shell casings were found near the body outside Apt. 60.
The state's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and Warren police crime lab were called in to process the scene for evidence.
One neighbor said she saw a man emerge from behind a column in front of the apartment and open fire.
Another neighbor said she heard four shots and looked outside.
"I saw the dude lying there, and I went back into the house," she said.
Simeone said he had no suspects nor a motive for the killing.
Police said Blackwell had money on him when they arrived. A white sheet was placed over the body at the scene. Simeone said Blackwell had been staying for a couple of days with a friend at the complex.
A woman called police at 8:47 p.m. Wednesday to report that a man in a red sweat shirt with a hood had been walking past her apartment.
When she asked the man what he wanted, according to the police log, the man told her that she was trouble and he continued to walk around.
Simeone said he thinks the man walking around was Blackwell.
Mullen, of Niles, said she last saw her cousin earlier this week at a friend's house on Tod Avenue in Warren. She didn't notice anything unusual about him while they watched television.
Mullen said that her cousin had been in trouble with the law and jailed but that she didn't think Blackwell was involved with drugs.
The tenant in Apt. 60 allowed police to search his apartment. Simeone said that the tenant is not a suspect.