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Youngstown police probe West Side slaying
By Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
Police are investigating what apparently will be the 10th homicide of the year — the Friday afternoon shooting death of a 27-year-old Thalia Street man at 1754 Silliman St. on the West Side.
Michael Abighanem was killed after he and a friend went to the Silliman home so that Abighanem could sell a Sony Playstation 3 game and a laptop computer, according to a Youngstown police report.
The friend told police Abighanem went in the front door with a black male while he parked the car. The friend eventually went inside also, where he noticed a second black male.
Abighanem and one of the males went upstairs, then the friend heard a “pop,” heard Abighanem call his name, then heard a second “pop” and fled the house.
“It looks like there was some type of altercation and gunfire erupted,” Police Chief Rod Foley said at the scene. “We’re just trying to figure out what happened.”
Abighanem had been the subject of an arrest warrant by Boardman police Wednesday on a theft charge. He also was the subject of theft-related charges several times in Boardman and Austintown since 2006, according to court records.
His apparent homicide and another shooting later Friday at Teenie’s Tavern on South Avenue occurred just as dozens of law- enforcement officers from nine agencies spread out over the city for Operation Shield, intended to reduce violent crime over the summer months.
Abighanem’s friend called police at 4:27 p.m. When officers arrived, they kicked in the door. The body was found after that.
Neighbors said the house had been the site of two explosions at the side and rear door on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and that the family living there moved out around that time. One young man had been staying there in recent months, they said.
The young man arrived at the scene about a half-hour after police were called, and he was placed in the back of the cruiser while a half-dozen or more police officers and additional detectives and coroner’s officials investigated.
One resident of Silliman, which is just east of Borts Field, said the street has been “in constant chaos” because of repeated break-ins.
“It stinks,” the woman said. “People work really hard for a living, and people break in and take what they want.”
Police spent well over an hour at the house before workers removed the body, apparently from the room just inside the front door. The house is at the corner of Silliman Street and North Maryland Avenue.
Operation Shield will continue through Sunday and will include officers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force; Mahoning County Juvenile Probation Department; Ohio Adult Parole Authority; U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; U.S. Marshal’s Service; Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation; and FBI Violent Crimes Task Force.
The agencies are helping the Youngstown Police Department in its goal of implementing a long-term strategy to prevent violent gang activity, according to a press release from the Youngstown Police Department.
As of early Friday evening, officers working Operation Shield had made several arrests for a variety of offenses, Foley said.