Deadly shooting triggers manhunt

The shooting followed a fight inside the bar, police said.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — City police and members of the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force continue looking for a 25-year-old man who they say is the primary suspect in the fatal shooting of another man at the El Tropical bar on Poland Avenue early Saturday.

Two other people also were injured in the shooting, including a woman who was listed in guarded condition late Saturday at St. Elizabeth Health Center. The other person was treated for a gunshot wound of the arm.

Ricardo P. Moctezuma, 25, Burlington Street, Youngstown, was found by police bleeding from the head in the parking lot of the South Side bar after 1 a.m.

Witnesses told police he had fought inside the bar with the suspect, who the task force identified as Jason M. Delgado.

Witnesses told police that after the bar staff broke up the fight and told the two to leave, Delgado ran out through the patio and jumped its fence, circling around the building to shoot at Moctezuma. The suspect fled in a green sport-utility vehicle after shooting Moctezuma and the two other people, they said.

Police reports describe Delgado as a Hispanic male 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He is featured in today’s editions of The Vindicator as the Fugitive of the Week.

During the fight inside the bar, a beer bottle was thrown and smashed, cutting one of the bartenders.

The charge for the nonfatal injuries caused by the shooter is felonious assault, police said, and the charge for Moctezuma’s death is murder.

Detectives, the crime lab and the coroner were on the scene after the shooting, which awoke neighbors. They said Saturday they heard gunshots and sirens coming from near the bar area.

Acting on a tip, police later Saturday went to a Pasadena Avenue house, suspected of being the place they could find Delgado.

After waiting for a period of time, the Crisis Response Team broke open the front door and entered the home but did not find Delgado.

This is the city’s 18th homicide this year, and the first since June 29. The city had recorded the same number of homicides at this time in 2007.