If coroner rules homicide in death, it would be city’s sixth for this year

An autopsy was to be performed today.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Aaron J. Clinkscale, 30, of Rush Boulevard, died Friday in St. Elizabeth Health Center of a gunshot wound to the head suffered Thursday on the city’s South Side.

A Mahoning County coroner’s investigator said an autopsy was to be performed on Clinkscale today. The investigator said Clinkscale’s death is being investigated as a homicide, but his death has not been ruled a homicide yet.

Police found Clinkscale shot and lying in the snow unconscious in front of a vacant house in the 300 block of East Florida Avenue at 6:20 p.m.

Clinkscale was wounded in what police said at the time appeared to have been a drive-by shooting.

Since Clinkscale was found wounded, police have revisited the shooting scene looking for clues and witnesses.

One witness said he heard a single gunshot Thursday evening, looked out a window of a nearby house and saw a red car.

Another witness, a South Side resident driving past the scene, saw Clinkscale lying in the snow, bleeding from his head, and called 911.

A relative of Clinkscale’s who arrived at the scene about 30 minutes after police said Clinkscale had left his residence just before being shot to pay a $40 debt to a man he knew.

If the coroner rules the death was a homicide, it would be the sixth in the city this year. There were two homicides in the city at this time in 2009.