East Side family dealing with double tragedy

March 16, 2013 at 12:09a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

It has been little more than a week since an East Side family learned their relative’s skeletal remains were found by dogs in a rural area.

That same family is now coping with the shooting death of another family member at a local convenience store.

Robert Floyd Jr., 24, of Atkinson Avenue was shot to death just after 9 p.m. Thursday as he attempted to get into his car at the Red and White Convenience Store on Lansdowne Boulevard on the city’s East Side.

He is the city’s third homicide victim this year. There were eight homicides at this time in 2012.

Floyd is the nephew of 26-year-old David Allen Jackson, who was reported missing in December 2012. Jackson was involved in a shooting at the same store just shortly before he was reported missing.

Jackson’s skeletal remains were found scattered months later in an East Side neighborhood. Police continue to investigate the cause of his death.

Hubert Floyd, 75, the father of Jackson and grandfather of Robert Floyd, said the unusual circumstances are taking a toll on the family.

“We are really trying the best we can with all of this. It has truly been rough on all of us,” he said.

Police Chief Rod Foley said a man stepped from the shadows of a nearby building and took aim at Floyd as he was attempting to get into his car. Detectives have obtained video surveillance showing what appears to be the outline of a male in a hooded shirt doing the shooting.

Foley said Floyd seems to have been targeted in the shooting. Nothing was stolen or taken from the car after Floyd was gunned down.

“That is what we are looking at now, trying to determine what this situation is all about. ... It seems to be intentional. I just can’t see the shooter just happening to have been there at the time the victim went to the store,” the chief said.

Floyd just recently had been released from prison after serving a little less than three years for complicity to voluntary manslaughter. Floyd and 19-year-old D’Von Walls were convicted of shooting and killing 19-year-old Sirtan Alli in 2008.

Alli was found shot in the back of his head on the sidewalk on McGuffey Road near Cassius Street on the East Side and died later that day in St. Elizabeth Health Center.

A 9mm handgun with 11 rounds in its magazine was found on the sidewalk between the victim’s legs.

Police said Walls and Floyd exchanged gunfire with Alli.

Floyd was released from prison in October. Walls still is incarcerated.

Foley would not say if revenge is a possibility in the shooting. He said detectives are exploring all avenues and not making a determination as to motive this early in the investigation.

“It could be that someone ripped someone else off for dope or even that someone is messing with someone’s girlfriend. You just don’t know,” Foley said.

The chief said police will step up patrols in the neighborhood where the store sits. Foley said there is a concern about more violence over the weekend.

“We don’t want anybody out there trying to even the score,” he said.