Police search for suspects in Walgreens robbery, East Side shooting

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police continue to search for suspects in a drugstore robbery and a shooting, both on the city’s East Side.

Officers arrested Detwan Marquise Walker, 19, of Youngstown, about 11 p.m. Friday after he and two men fled Walgreens, 2864 McCartney Road, where a robbery had just been reported.

Walker remained in the Mahoning County jail Saturday on an aggravated robbery charge, accused of threatening a drugstore manager and taking thousands of dollars from the store safe.

An officer was doing a routine business check of Walgreens when a woman approached the cruiser and said three men went inside the store wearing masks, according to reports.

Soon after, three men left the store, saw the officer and fled. The officer chased the suspects, and one dropped a bag later discovered to be filled with bundled cash totalling more than $2,000.

One man ran north, and two headed west as more officers from Youngstown and Campbell came to the area.

A police-dog unit from Boardman also was called and tracked the area, locating several pieces of clothing and eventually finding Walker hiding behind a couch on the back porch of a Greeley Lane home, police said.

Reports state police found a note in Walker’s pocket about “wanting everything from the safe.”

When police interviewed the store manager, she said three men came into the store and one handed her a note that urged her to keep quiet and hand over pills. When she told the man that she didn’t have a key to the pharmacy, he demanded she open the safe and he took more than $4,000, police said.

Although she never saw a gun, the manager said the man threatened to “blow her head off” several times if she did not cooperate, reports stated. Police continue to search for the two accomplices.

Police also are investigating an East Side shooting and released the name of the victim Saturday.

William T. Hite Jr., 59, of Youngstown, was wounded in the arm and torso about a block away from the Shehy Market, 786 Shehy St., about 6:30 p.m. Friday, police said.

Hite told police he was wounded in a drive-by shooting while he was walking on the street, and people near the area said they heard about five shots. Hite was said to be in critical condition and was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center.