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Man critical after drive-by shooting on Youngstown’s East Side
YOUNGSTOWN
A man who police said is about 60 years old was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center in critical condition after having been hit in the arm and torso in a drive-by shooting on the East Side on Friday.
Detective Lt. Douglas Bobovnyik said the victim apparently was walking west on Shehy Street near Fruit Street when a passenger in an eastbound car fired several pistol shots at him.
Lt. Bobovnyik said the man walked two blocks down the hill to the Shehy Gas Mart convenience store after being shot about 6:35 p.m.
“He walked down to the market, opened the door, said he was shot, and he collapsed on the steps” at the market entrance, Bobovnyik said.
The lieutenant said police recovered several shell casings from the street, and he believes the man was shot in his left arm. He declined to disclose the caliber of gun used.
Store owner Abraham Ilain, who was inside the store, said the victim opened the store door.
“He opened the door, and he said: ‘Call the ambulance. I got shot,’” Ilain recalled. “He waited on the steps for the ambulance,” lying down and bleeding profusely, the store owner added.
Ilain immediately called 911, and police arrived about five minutes later, with an ambulance arriving shortly thereafter to take the victim to the hospital.
Ilain described the victim as a white man in his 60s.
“He just started coming here in the last couple of weeks. He was new to the neighborhood,” Ilain said, adding that he believed the victim lives on Bruce Street.
He said the victim told him he was walking to the store to play the Ohio Lottery when he was shot from a car he thought was a Grand Am.
Ilain said he heard no shots, but he said a female customer told him she heard shots outside before she entered the store, but she did not know where they originated.
Bobovnyik said he had no idea as to the motive for the shooting and did not know the identity of the victim.
Detectives and crime-lab specialists were still at the crime scene gathering evidence in the light of the full moon two hours after the shooting.