17-year-old charged in today's South Side shooting

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A 17-year-old city teen is charged with the shooting of a 15-year-old boy on the city’s South Side.

Police arrived at 69 East Philadelphia Ave. around 1:30 p.m. today to find Shawn Hamlett Jr. of West Warren Avenue in Youngstown standing in the driveway with a gunshot wound to the chest.

The victim reportedly told officers that someone knocked on the door of the house, then fired into the home striking the victim. The police report states that Hamlett couldn’t identify the suspect and his account of the incident was inconsistent.

A short time later police arrested 17-year-old Shawn Shuler, who lives at the East Philadelphia residence and was among five others who were questioned as witnesses to the shooting.

Shuler was charged with felonious assault and was taken to the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center.

Hamlett was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center. His condition wasn’t available Thursday evening.

As police checked the perimeter of the home, they discovered footprints coming out of the house going to the back yard then back into the house. They followed the prints and found a revolver in the snow, according to the report.

The investigation is ongoing.