Separate shootings kill 1

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A 39-year-old South Side man was fatally shot in his West LaClede Avenue home, a day after federal, state and local law-enforcement officials announced a major crackdown on gun-related crimes.

And a 16-year-old South Side girl was shot in the thighs Saturday morning.

Dustin Jordan, of West LaClede, was shot shortly before 11 p.m. Friday and died at St. Elizabeth Health Center about an hour later.

Police received a call about the shooting from Jordan’s neighbor, who told officers that the victim knocked on his door and said that he had been shot before collapsing on her living-room floor, according to a police report.

After the shooting, officers went to Jordan’s home, which he shared with another man, and discovered the rear door open and several small-caliber live rounds inside the front door.

Police said they also found one spent shell casing and blood on the back enclosed porch, where they believe the shooting occurred.

There was no one else in the house when police searched it.

Police do not have a suspect but said Jordan’s roommate is a “person of interest.”

Since Thursday’s announcement about a major crime-crackdown program, there have been three shootings in Youngstown. Jordan is the only gunshot victim to die.

The 16-year-old Hylda Avenue girl was shot in the right and left thighs around 10:30 a.m. Saturday while standing on the southwest corner of Mistletoe and Hudson avenues on the city’s South Side.

The girl was taken to St. Elizabeth by a friend driving a car she flagged down. She did not see anyone or a vehicle when she was shot, according to a police report.

The crackdown — called Violence, Gun Reduction Interdiction Program — is designed to reduce gun crimes in not only Youngstown but surrounding areas. The program began Thursday.

A similar V-GRIP conducted in only Youngstown between late June and early September 2003 resulted in nearly 400 arrests and only one homicide.