Arrests made in Adkins slaying

Boys age 17, 15 to face charges

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

Youngstown

Police have arrested two juveniles charged in the shooting death of a 16-year-old Chaney High School student earlier this month.

About 5:30 p.m. Saturday, police arrested Rayshawn Marquise Royal, 17, and Deandre Maurice McCrary, 15, both of the South Side, at a home on East Avondale Avenue.

Warrants were issued last week charging both teens in the June 18 shooting death of Brandon Adkins, 16, of East Philadelphia Avenue.

Police Chief Jimmy Hughes said the investigation is ongoing and charges may be filed against additional individuals.

“We do believe others were involved with this,” the chief said.

He said that initially the two suspects hid in the house and police surrounded it and prepared to make entry, but the two teens came out and were arrested.

Hughes said that police also are investigating reports of threats made against witnesses in Adkins’ murder.

The mother of a witness to the shooting told police this week that she is concerned about threats made against her child’s life.

Police found Adkins on June 18 lying in the driveway of a South Avenue house surrounded by a large crowd. The Mahoning County coroner, after an autopsy, said Adkins had been shot in the back and abdomen. He was pronounced dead by paramedics.

Police have said that Adkins was shot by two people with two different guns.

The shooting took place after a fight earlier that night at a party on Mistletoe Avenue, they said. They don’t believe the shooting was gang-related but said all three boys could be part of any one of the nearly 30 identified, loosely-knit gangs operating in the city.

Reports indicated Adkins was affiliated with the H-Block Gang, which operates on the South Side.

It isn’t the first time that either suspect has had run-ins with the law.

McCrary has been a reported runaway twice in the last two years. He also was implicated as one of several youths involved in a 2010 burglary on East Ravenwood Avenue.

Royal was implicated in a 2006 assault at Eagle Heights Academy, where reports allege he pushed another student into a wall and choked the boy. He also was implicated in a theft at a relative’s home in 2008 and an aggravated burglary on East LaClede Avenue in 2009 where items were taken from the home of Royal’s teen friend.

Royal also was the victim of a shooting in 2010 when he was shot twice in the leg while at an East Side housing project.

The victim, too, had brushes with police.

Reports show Adkins and several other 16-year-old boys were suspected of beating a teen and firing a shot at the boy in January because they believed the boy snitched on someone.