Shooters hit man in car

The vehicle had been hit by 16 gunshots. The driver is in critical condition.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Chalk circles were drawn around the 22 bullets and shell casings that landed on the pavement at the corner of Southern Boulevard and Hilton Avenue on Monday afternoon after a 21-year-old city man was critically injured there.

The white 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix that Dewayne A. McCullough of East Florida Avenue was driving when he was shot contained 16 bullet holes.

McCullough was in critical condition in St. Elizabeth Health Center late Monday, police said.

When police arrived at the intersection just past noon, they found McCullough lying on the sidewalk in front of a home in the 100 block of Hilton Avenue bleeding from his left side, going in and out of consciousness.

Nearby, his car jumped a curb and stopped. Bullets hit the driver’s side of the vehicle, smashing out both windows.

Robert Mauldin, a crime lab investigator, placed yellow numbered placards near the 22 chalk marks and photographed each one.

Detective Sgt. Daryl Martin said McCullough had been traveling east on Hilton, crossing the railroad tracks on Southern Boulevard when shots were fired from another car, a dark, possibly blue, Chevrolet Cobalt, that had two black men in it.

A Youngtown police report said witnesses saw the two men roll up in their car and start shooting into his vehicle. Afterward, they fled east in the vehicle on Florida Avenue.

Martin said the victim, who was alone in the car, is known to police and has a criminal record.