Felonious-assault charge filed in shooting

Charges against the firefighter haven’t been ruled out.

YOUNGSTOWN — The man accused of shooting an off-duty city firefighter was released from Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital on Friday afternoon and taken to police headquarters downtown for questioning before being booked into the Mahoning County Jail.

A felonious-assault charge was filed Friday against Stefin Gantt, 20, of Garden Street Northwest, Warren. He is expected to be video-arraigned Monday in municipal court.

The firefighter, Andre Johnson, 26, of North Fruit Street, was shot in the face, stomach and leg at his home around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. He remains in critical condition at St. Elizabeth Health Center.

During the attack, Gantt was shot in his left forearm and lost a portion of his right ear. Police have said the ear was likely bitten or cut off.

Gantt’s arrest “does not signal the end to the investigation. It is just starting,” Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives, said Friday. “We will take our time. There’s no rush; we want to get it right.”

Centorame, echoing an earlier statement by Fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr., said detectives, too, are worried about Johnson’s health. The captain said the investigation proceeds and he wouldn’t rule out charges’ being filed against the firefighter.

Centorame said investigators believe only one gun was used, the small-caliber pistol found at the house. Ownership of the weapon hasn’t been established. Gunshot residue tests were done on Johnson and Gantt, who know each other.

Gantt told investigators he didn’t bring the gun and was not at Johnson’s house to buy drugs, Centorame said, adding the statements must be corroborated.

Reports show a struggle took place inside Johnson’s basement, where furniture was overturned and blood found on the carpet. Vice squad officers found roughly a pound of marijuana in a duffel bag, a digital scale with marijuana residue, a drug pipe, a loaded .25-caliber pistol and $500 cash in a night stand, and smaller bags of marijuana.

Fingerprints were lifted from the bags of marijuana. Johnson has a roommate who wasn’t home at the time of the shooting.

Trumbull County court records, meanwhile, show Gantt was indicted in April on charges of felonious assault with a firearm specification, improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation and felonious assault on a peace officer with a firearm specification. A pretrial hearing had been set for two days ago with Judge John M. Stuard.

Vindicator files show that Gantt is accused of firing a shot in the direction of Warren Patrolman Jeff Miller when the officer was responding to a report of a man with a firearm in the 1500 block of North Park Avenue on Feb. 25.