Officials ID body on E. Side

Police are trying to establish a timeline of where the victim had been.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The man found shot to death in a wooded area near Commonwealth Avenue on the East Side has been identified by the coroner as 20-year-old Brandon S. “Bezee” Rowe.

Rowe’s last known address was on Wilcox Street.

A woman using a pathway through the woods to get to her Berkley Avenue home around 5:45 a.m. Friday discovered the body face down in the dirt between Commonwealth and Kimmel Avenue.

First officers on the scene found the victim in a puddle of blood and two shell casings nearby.

Detectives who checked the pathway just north of the body found several casings and shoe impressions in the moist dirt. It had rained overnight.

Gunfire was heard between 3 and 4 a.m. Friday in the area where the homicide victim was later found, reports show.

Coroner’s investigator Rick Jamrozik said Rowe had been shot several times in the head, torso and pelvis.

The case is being investigated by Detective Sgt. Ron Rodway.

Lt. Mark Milstead said Rodway was out Friday trying to track down Rowe’s girlfriend and others to establish a timeline of where the victim had been. Milstead said no motive or suspects had emerged.

The witness told police that the body was not there when she used the path around 10:30 p.m. Thursday to walk to her mother’s house on Republic Avenue. When she came upon the man in the morning, she called out, “Sir, are you OK?” and then, after getting no response, returned to her mother’s house. The witness’s brother then went to check on the man — to see if he was asleep or deceased — and returned to call police.

Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives, said there was no identification, keys, drugs or coins on the victim. No car was found, either.

Milstead said Rodway’s investigation led to the identity.

The shooting death is the city’s 16th homicide of the year. At this time last year, the city had recorded 15 homicides.