43
Police probe teen’s slaying
The plan was to rob the victim, police said.
YOUNGS-TOWN — A mysterious phone call led Demar L. Flores to a neighbor’s house and a rendezvous with death.
Sonia Flores last saw her 18-year-old son around 5 p.m. Monday when he arrived home and she headed to work.
“Later, there was a phone call and he left — then all this drama. It was a setup,” Flores, 46, said inside her small tract home on Eliot Lane. “I got a call at work about 10 that my son got shot, and I went to the hospital but wasn’t allowed to see him.”
Sonia Flores talked in the kitchen, where every available table and counter space was filled with food for family and friends paying condolences. She wiped her eyes and excused herself for a minute to find a photo of her son.
Demar was training to do construction work and also wanted to be a rapper, his mother said when she returned. Her eyes filled with tears as she gazed at the young man in the photo.
“He was a happy kid, loved everybody,” said stepdad John Harris, 43. “He’d put his mind to something and do it. He was a very hard worker.”
Harris answered the phone Monday night but had “no clue” who called for his stepson.
After taking the call, Demar Flores ran out to his car. That was the last time his family saw him alive.
Around 9:50 p.m. Monday, a 37-year-old woman who lives at 54 Rutledge Drive, around the corner and not far from Flores’ home, called police. She told police she was in her driveway, talking to Flores, when the shooting took place.
Sonia Flores said her son used to hang out with two young men who live at 54 Rutledge. Harris believes the passenger in Demar’s car, a 22-year-old man who lists his address as 54 Rutledge, had something to do with the “setup.”
First officers on the scene found Flores on his stomach in the driveway and his passenger leaning over him.
Flores, shot a least three times in the back, died later at St. Elizabeth Health Center. His death is the city’s eighth homicide of the year.
The car Flores was driving, a 1992 Oldsmobile, had bullet holes on the driver’s side. Four casings were found near the house and driveway. The car was towed and held for Detective Sgt. Brad Blackburn, lead investigator.
Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives, said it appears Flores was lured to the house on Rutledge in a robbery attempt. The suspects, he said, were waiting for their victim.
When asked if the account given by witnesses was credible, Centorame said, “We’re looking into that.” He said that, aside from the two witnesses who said they were outside when the shooting took place, Blackburn intended to question the two brothers who were reportedly inside while their mother was in the driveway.
Flores’ passenger told police that two suspects, likely both in their 20s and both dressed in black, approached from the rear yard. One wore a black mask; the other used a black bandanna to cover his face.
The one in the mask pointed a gun at Flores as he sat behind the wheel of the Olds, reports show. “Give me what you got!” the witness said he heard the gunman demand several times.
Flores, who got out and ran, was shot in the back and fell to the ground. The suspects fled.