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Police probe homicide, 11th in city this year
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
A man who was found shot to death late Wednesday morning in the rear yards behind 117 and 127 N. Lane Ave. on the city’s East Side has been identified by police as Emanuel Izquierdo, 31, but no address was immediately available for him.
His death was listed as the city’s 11th homicide case of the year. There were nine at this time last year.
Izquierdo, who had no positive identification on him, was lying face down on the ground with three bullet holes in the back of his head and bullet holes in the back of his neck, his back, forearm and buttocks. Police found 15 spent 9mm shell casings nearby. No guns were found at the scene.
Witnesses reported hearing shots at 11:17 a.m., but no one reported seeing the shooting, police said.
Capt. Rod Foley, chief of detectives, said no suspects are in custody, no arrest warrants have been issued in this case, and the motive for the shooting is undetermined. An autopsy was being performed Thursday afternoon at the Mahoning County coroner’s office.
“We don’t have a lot to work with right now,” Foley said, adding that detectives are trying to find and interview those who saw or spoke to Izquierdo in the last few hours of his life and who might know who Izquierdo might have been going to meet.
“We’ve got a few leads but nothing that’s directing us to any individual person,” of interest, he said. “There wasn’t a lot to work with when we got there,” he said of the crime scene.
The police report says the victim was a bald, brown-eyed, clean-shaven Hispanic man, 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing 180 pounds, wearing white sunglasses, a brown shirt, blue jeans and black tennis shoes.
The police report says an argument led to the murder but does not elaborate and does not provide a description of a suspect or suspects.
A witness said he was driving behind the victim, who parked in front of him, exited the vehicle and walked to the rear of 127 N. Lane, after which the witness heard five gunshots but didn’t see anything.
Another witness told police she was sleeping in the upstairs bedroom of her residence when she was awakened by five or six gunshots, ran to her bedroom window but didn’t see anything outside, then saw the victim from her rear window and called police.
Another witness reported she was awakened by three to five gunshots but didn’t see anything.
An agent of the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, who was two houses away from the crime scene, reported hearing multiple gunshots and seeing a small silver car with two Hispanic men in it flee northbound out of the driveway of the vacant house at 117 N. Lane Ave. and turn right onto Oak Street.
The license plate number copied by the APA officer traced back to Canton, Ohio, and the APA officer reported later seeing the car traveling north on Garland Avenue minus its passenger.
The vehicle containing the suspects was reported stolen Wednesday in Liberty, Foley said.