Campbell woman shot, drives to Howland, dies

A Campbell detective called the shooting drug-related.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

HOWLAND — A woman who was shot in Campbell drove herself and her live-in boyfriend to their Howland residence without realizing she’d been shot before dying of her injury, a detective said.

“She felt some pain, but that was it. There was hardly any bleeding,” externally, said Detective Gus Nicolaou of the Campbell police department.

The victim, Diana Noble, 39, died of internal bleeding from the gunshot wound in her left side, said Nicolaou, who was at the autopsy performed Sunday morning by Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, a forensic pathologist, at Trumbull Memorial Hospital.

The detective added that a bullet slug was retrieved from her body during the autopsy, but he said its caliber and the type of gun that could have fired it have not been determined. Police haven’t recovered any gun in the case.

“All we have is a vague description” of two young black men as suspects given by the woman’s boyfriend, Thomas Butcher, 57, of 1460 Stillwagon Road, Howland, the detective said.

Butcher told police he heard three gunshots when Noble was shot sometime late Friday or early Saturday near the Michael J. Kirwan Homes, and Butcher wasn’t sure of the time, Nicolaou said. Nicolaou said the shooting was drug-related, but he declined to be more specific.

Kirwan Homes is a public housing complex on Jackson Street operated by the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority.

Butcher told police a Wilson Avenue gasoline station where the couple stopped to check for Noble’s wound was closed when they got there. That gasoline station closes at 11 p.m.

When the couple arrived in Butcher’s sport utility vehicle at their Howland residence, Noble “sat down, smoked some crack and died,” according to Butcher’s statement to police, Nicolaou said.

Butcher called 911 to summon Howland police and an ambulance to his residence at 10:20 a.m. Saturday after finding Noble dead, Nicolaou said. Police impounded the SUV. Noble lived with Butcher for 18 to 24 months before her death, Nicolaou said.

Howland Police Chief Paul Monroe declined to discuss the case Sunday and said his office would have more information on it today.

Butcher made news in August 2005, when he was charged with leading police on a chase from Campbell to his Howland home, where he engaged more than 60 police officers in a nine-hour standoff.

In that incident, Butcher arrived at a Tenth Street house in Campbell in search of Noble and her then-boyfriend, police reports said. Noble told police Butcher aimed a rifle at her boyfriend and threatened to kill him before she persuaded Butcher to put the gun down.

When Campbell police arrived, the chase began when Butcher refused to emerge from his vehicle and sped off. Youngstown, Liberty, Vienna and Warren police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol assisted during the chase.

Police, who described Butcher as intoxicated, said he barricaded himself in his home before emerging nine hours later and being arrested. A search of the premises revealed 10 firearms, including an AK-47 assault rifle and other types of rifles and handguns, police said.

There were no injuries in that incident, in which Butcher was charged with felonious assault and failure to comply with a police order. No information was available Sunday on the court disposition of those charges.