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Police continue probe of latest homicide
YOUNGSTOWN
Police continue gathering clues and looking for suspects in the death of 25-year-old Tito Haskins this week as the city’s murder rate stands at nearly three times what it was a year ago.
Haskins is the city’s eighth recorded homicide of 2012. The city recorded three homicides by the same time last year.
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. Police said a homeowner discovered the man, later determined to be Haskins, as he was leaving for work.
Haskins 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.
According to reports, residents in the Boston Avenue area said they heard a single gunshot ring out in the area about 10 minutes after Haskins left the woman’s home.
Police would not speculate on a potential motive for the shooting but did say that Haskins has a lengthy record of involvement with law enforcement. Those brushes with the law include criminal acts going back to when Haskins was a teenager.
Police charged Haskins with receiving stolen property when, at 17, he was caught driving a stolen car on the South Side. He was charged with theft of a motor vehicle the following year when he again was spotted driving a stolen car.
In 2011, Haskins was charged with resisting arrest and obstructing justice after police had to subdue him with a stinger gun and chemical repellent during a traffic stop on Fernwood Avenue.
Police arrested Haskins in October 2011 for probation violations during a large fight on East Midlothian and then in December for obstruction of justice and possession of marijuana.
In January, Haskins was listed as a suspect in the theft of $500 from a woman who gave him a ride to a local fast-food restaurant.
He also has reports and arrest for felonious assault, domestic violence and criminal damaging.