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Youngstown police find man’s body in SUV in Mahoning River
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The Mahoning County coroner is investigating what could be the city’s seventh homicide of 2009.
YOUNGSTOWN — Police continue their investigation into the shooting death of a city man.
Police have confirmed that the man found shot dead Friday morning and left in a sport-utility vehicle in the Mahoning River is 34-year-old Kendal Ware of the city’s South Side. Ware was listed as having a Rosedale Avenue address.
According to Detective Sgt. Brad Blackburn, a man driving to work at 7:30 a.m. noticed the top of a burgundy Chevrolet Suburban in the river off Salt Springs Road near Oneta Street on the West Side. Police pulled the vehicle from the river shortly after 9:30 a.m. and discovered Ware’s body.
Blackburn said the initial investigation shows that Ware was shot in the head, possibly multiple times, then placed in the SUV and pushed in the river.
He said the shooting did not seem to be motivated by robbery because Ware still had money and valuables in his possession.
Family members, several of whom where at the scene when Ware’s body was found, told officers they had seen Ware as recently as Thursday night, but Blackburn would not say where. He said police are still interviewing those last to see Ware alive.
The Mahoning County coroner also is investigating.
Blackburn asks that anyone with additional information contact his office at (330) 742-8268.
If ruled a homicide, Ware would be the seventh homicide of the year. The sixth homicide was that of Marvin Chambers, 35, of Bennington Avenue, who was found shot to death in Nick Johnson Park off Miltonia Avenue on the city’s East Side.
The city had recorded 10 homicides at this time last year.
jgoodwin@vindy.com