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Detectives investigate shooting of teenager
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
Detectives are investigating an early-morning shooting on the city’s East Side that forced the victim to undergo surgery at St. Elizabeth Health Center.
Raymond Hayes, 18, of Boston Avenue, went first to Forum Health Northside Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition, before being transported to St. Elizabeth.
When police responded at 12:41 a.m. Friday to a report of a possible gunshot victim in the 1400 block of Dogwood Lane, the victim already was gone from the shooting scene.
But police spoke to a witness who was walking west on Dogwood at Willow Court and who identified himself as Hayes’ cousin.
The witness said he was talking on his cell phone while walking toward Hayes when he heard three or four gunshots coming from Hayes’ location about a block to the west.
Hayes ran northeast toward Rosewood Lane, and the shooter ran southeast toward Victor Avenue, the witness told police.
The witness said he ran when he heard the shots and didn’t get a good look at the shooter.
The shooter is described in the police report only as a short-haired, light-skinned black man, about 18 years old and wearing red shorts.
Police said they recovered three spent .380 shell casings on Dogwood Lane about 20 feet east of Willow Court.
Police went to Northside and then St. Elizabeth, but they were unable to speak to Hayes early Friday at St. Elizabeth because he was in surgery.
The police report referred to possible internal injuries, but it did not say where on his body Hayes was hit with gunfire, and it did not specify a possible motive for the shooting.
Citing a federal health-care privacy law, a St. Elizabeth spokeswoman declined to provide Hayes’ condition.