School rivalry triggers killing Girl, 17, shot after party on North Side

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

and PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS

YOUNGSTOWN — A 17-year-old girl who liked to dance and draw was apparently pulled into an online feud between two high school groups and shot to death.

Maressia Patterson of Upland Avenue was hit by a drive-by shooter on Ford Avenue while walking home at 12:30 a.m. Saturday. The Rayen School student was with Akeem Minor, also 17, of Lauderdale Avenue, who was wounded.

Witnesses told police the shooting resulted from an ongoing dispute between two groups at Rayen and Chaney high schools.

Some of the verbal sparring took place on the popular MySpace Web site, witnesses said.

Patterson and Minor had been at a party on Lora Avenue, said Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives.

Police found Patterson on the ground and unresponsive in front of 1605 Ford Ave. She was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center where she was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to the back, police reported.

Centorame said Minor’s injuries were not life- threatening.

The details

Members of Patterson’s family sat at the girl’s Upland Avenue home Saturday, remembering Maressia as outgoing and fun to be around.

Rachel Wilkins, Patterson’s mother, said her daughter loved spending time with younger members of her family and allowing her creative side to show.

“She liked to draw, loved to draw. She has an art book where she kept all of her different drawings and stuff. She liked to dance, too,” she said.

Two arrests were made after Detective Sgts. Rick Spotleson and Ron Rodway pieced together what happened.

Deon Glenn, 18, of Glenwood Avenue, was arrested around 8 a.m. at home. A gun, believed to be the murder weapon, was recovered from the backyard. He faces charges of murder and felonious assault.

Centorame said Glenn was a passenger in a car driven by Robert Jackson Jr., 18, of Youngstown. Jackson, whose mother turned him in to police at 3 a.m., faces charges of complicity to murder and felonious assault.

At least two more arrests could follow for other passengers in the car, which police found stashed on Homestead Drive in Boardman, Centorame said.

Why it happened

Centorame said no motive had yet emerged for the crime, other than some talk about a rivalry between Rayen and Chaney. He said there’s no indication the victims and alleged shooter knew one another.

Witnesses at the shooting scene told officers that as they left a North Side party, a red Oldsmobile Cutlass drove past a group asking them if they were members of a certain gang whose members attended Rayen. Witnesses said someone in the car then fired six or seven shots as the car drove away.

Other witnesses told police that at least two people in the car were associated with a gang whose members attended Chaney.

Witnesses said the two groups have been fighting since spring break with words being exchanged on the MySpace Web site. Because of the MySpace sparring, witnesses said, there was supposed to have been a fight at the North Side party.

Detectives reviewed probable cause for a search warrant with City Prosecutor Jay Macejko, who joined them downtown after being awakened at 5 a.m. Common Pleas Judge Maureen A. Cronin was awakened at 6:30 a.m. to sign the search warrant for Glenn’s home, Centorame said.

Patterson is the city’s 12th homicide of the year. There were 11 homicides recorded in Youngstown at this time last year.