Family, friends pained by comments after killings

YOUNGSTOWN — Those touched by a quadruple homicide on West Evergreen Avenue three days ago fear retaliation and pray the case is solved soon.

“These young men [the shooters] don’t know what they’re doing — they’re destroying families,” said Christina Dill, whose son Martwain Dill, 23, was shot and killed three months ago on Glenwood Avenue. She doesn’t like the idea that his shooting is being mentioned in connection with an ongoing feud.

Detectives believe a feud — shootings back and forth over the past year — may have led to the Monday night shooting deaths of Anthony M. Crockett, 23; Christopher D. Howard, 24; Marvin Boone, 19; and Danielle Parker, 22; all of Youngstown. The four were gunned down inside 548 W. Evergreen Ave., where Crockett and Parker had been staying for a short time.

Gary Crockett, 29, of John Street, one of the men charged in the Dill homicide, is Anthony Crockett’s first cousin. In the past few months, Anthony Crockett was wounded twice by gunfire before being killed Monday night.

Christina Dill, 42, of the city’s South Side, said her son Marcus Dill is the father of Parker’s 4-year-old daughter. She fears for his safety.

Parker’s mother, 46-year-old Brenda Parker, also of the South Side, said she’s blessed with God in her life, family and friends. She’s “doing OK,” until she has to talk about what happened.

“I have Danielle’s little girl. I told her as much as I can get a 4-year-old to understand,” Brenda Parker said. “I cry when I talk about how they found my baby. I’m trying not to dwell on it.”

Danielle Parker was found curled in a fetal position in the upstairs bedroom on West Evergreen. She and the other victims had been shot in the head and body, police said.

Brenda Parker said her daughter and Anthony Crockett, who everyone called Mark (his middle name is Marcus), had been together about two years. She found some comments made by Nykisha Townsend in a Vindicator story Wednesday disturbing.

Townsend, 24, of South Avenue, has three children by Crockett and told The Vindicator she’s pregnant again by him — and didn’t know why he was with Danielle Parker. Townsend went to the house on West Evergreen after hearing about the shooting and held Crockett until police arrived.

“No one knows why the feud started. I think it was over material things,” Brenda Parker said. “I think Mark [Anthony Crockett] got involved out of loyalty to family and friends.”

Nahdia Baker, 20, a sister of Anthony Crockett, and Lashonda Boone, 24, a sister of Marvin Boone, are upset by comments Mayor Jay Williams made after the quadruple homicide.

Aware that all the victims except Parker had criminal records, the mayor said it is virtually impossible to protect people who commit crimes. He said he had very little sympathy for people who put their lives on the edge by being involved in illegal activities.

“I feel everyone has a right to life,” Baker said. “The mayor should feel sympathy regardless of lifestyle. ... We’re grieving — how could he say that?”

Boone said the mayor’s comments were ignorant. She acknowledged her brother had a criminal record but said he was not a violent offender.

“You tell the mayor to do his job to keep criminals off the street and this won’t happen,” Boone said.

Boone said that, in her heart, she believes the shootings are not linked to Martwain Dill. “That wasn’t the only thing going on — [Anthony Crockett] had other beefs beside Martwain.”

Baker said Crockett was getting his life together and trying to get his recording studio, Doe Boyz Entertainment, off the ground.

She, as some others, do believe the feud is linked in some way to Martwain Dill and said her brother had been trying to keep everyone calm.

No one has been able to say definitively what started the feud since so many involved had been friends.