Army man’s death probed

By Ed Runyan

The young man ‘loved the Army,’ his grandmother said.

AUSTINTOWN — Police are treating the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old Army man from Youngstown and Boardman as an accident, for now.

They have, however, collected physical evidence from the scene and are continuing to investigate.

Randy W. Davis, 22, of 895 Mayfield Drive, Boardman, and 73 Oneta Ave. in Youngstown, died Saturday in St. Elizabeth Health Center after being shot in the forehead at about 10 p.m. Friday in a house on Burkey Road in Austintown.

Davis was there with his brother, Ron, 23, and several other people at the home of Donnie R. Reed, 49.

Police said Randy Davis didn’t know Reed very well, having met him on one previous occasion. But after the two men talked about military weapons, Reed took Davis to a bedroom to show him a World War II-era .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and handed it to Randy Davis.

Reed told police that he handed the gun to Davis and it went off. Later, Reed told police that he was standing in the hallway and turned his back to Randy Davis when he heard the slide on the gun get pulled back, heard the gun fire and saw Davis lying on the floor.

While interviewing Reed, an officer detected a strong odor of alcohol, a police report said. Reed said he had two beers around 4 p.m. Detective Doug Scharsu declined to answer additional questions about the role of alcohol in the shooting when asked on Tuesday.

Scharsu added that the department is awaiting a ruling on the cause of Davis’ death from the Mahoning County coroner’s office.

Connie Zuccaro, grandmother of Randy and Ron Davis, said Randy had been in the Army since October. He had taken basic training and started his advanced training at Fort Lee in Virginia. He had been on leave from his advanced training for a couple of weeks and was due to return there April 18, she said.

Randy had attended Springfield Local Schools and later lived in Youngstown with his mother, Debra Zuccaro, and completed coursework for his GED at the Life Skills Academy in Youngstown. He and Ron lived with their mother and grandparents — Connie and Vincent Zuccaro — in Boardman.

Randy “loved the Army,” Connie Zuccaro said, adding that he “wanted to go to Iraq and wanted to fight for his country.”

He loved the Green Bay Packers and former quarterback Brett Favre, loved skateboarding and jogging.

Connie Zuccaro said she feels her grandson knew how to handle guns well enough to keep from shooting himself, and he was certainly not suicidal.

“I never saw him depressed,” she said.

She said the family was told at St. Elizabeth’s that Randy did not have any drugs or alcohol in his system.

Connie Zuccaro said she doesn’t know why her grandsons were at Reed’s house.

Scharsu said the Davises were apparently in the house visiting and that Ron Davis apparently knew Reed because they worked together.

Scharsu said testing was done on the hands of Randy Davis and Reed to determine whether there was any gunpowder residue on them. The testing materials were sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, and the results will not be available for a month or two, Scharsu said.

runyan@vindy.com