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Youngstown police seek suspects in city’s 8th homicide of the year
YOUNGSTOWN
Police are talking to witnesses and searching for suspects in the eighth homicide in the city this year but still are releasing little information about the investigation.
Police were called out to the 500 block of East Boston Avenue on the South Side about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday for a body found on the side porch of a home. Det. Sgt. Daryl Martin said a home-owner discovered the man as he was leaving for work.
“The homeowner was getting up to go to work and noticed what appeared to be some debris on his porch. When he looked a little closer, he saw the body,” he said.
The man had been killed by a single gunshot wound to the head.
Police and the Mahoning County Coroner’s office are not releasing the victim’s name until the family has been notified.
Martin said the victim had gone to another home in the Boston Avenue area about 2:50 a.m. looking for a female acquaintance. When told the woman was not home, he left the house in an unknown direction.
According to Martin, residents in the Boston Avenue area said they heard a single gunshot ring out in the area about 10 minutes after the victim left the woman’s home. One resident said he did not call police after hearing the gunshot because of the prevalence of gunfire in the area.
A witness did tell police a dark-colored SUV was parked on the street moments after the shooting.
Police checked security cameras at a nearby school and determined that a dark-colored SUV and a red car were in the area at the time of the shooting.
Martin said the victim is not associated with the homeowner who found him Wednesday morning.
Martin said police have not discovered a motive for the shooting but did say the victim had a reputation for illegal activity.
“He has a reputation for different things like area robberies and stuff like that, but we have not nailed down a motive. It could be a variety of things,” he said.