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Witness: Argument led to mass shooting at YSU off-campus house
YOUNGSTOWN
The events leading up to a mass shooting off the Youngstown State University campus last year began with an argument involving a woman.
A professional boxer from St. Louis who was training in Youngstown explained to jurors Thursday during Columbus Jones Jr.’s murder trial that there was an argument between the boxer’s sister and one of the other defendants in the case at the Indiana Avenue house party Feb. 6, 2011.
The boxer, Danny Williams, 26, said Braylon Rogers got into an argument with Williams’ sister, in which Williams said Rogers called her a b----.
Williams said he apologetically advised Rogers: “She’s a little tipsy.” Williams added that he had been “trying to calm things down.”
Williams said he and his sister had been at a downtown bar earlier that evening.
Williams testified Rogers punched him in the face before Williams was pushed out the door of the house.
Later, at the house party, Williams recalled his sister hit Jones. on the head with her shoe.
Williams said he was inside the house when he heard the gunshots that killed Jamail Johnson, a 25-year-old YSU senior, and wounded 11 others, most of them YSU students.
The jury trial of Jones, 23, of Cambridge Avenue, on charges of murder, 11 counts of felonious assault, and shooting into a habitation, is before Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Rogers, 21, of East Lucius Avenue, who has pleaded guilty to illegal gun possession, has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, who have recommended probation for him in exchange for his testimony as a prosecution witness.
Four other men, including Jones’ brother, Mark, also are charged with various crimes related to the shooting and are awaiting trial.