Warren police probe killing, shooting and stabbings

March 19, 2013 at 11:36a.m.

WARREN

Police are investigating the murder of 45-year-old Rodney Fletcher, found dead at a house on 2nd Street Southwest Monday night.

Police also are looking into a shooting and two stabbings after 4 a.m. today that police believe are related to each other.

One of the victims of the early-morning assaults near the Trumbull Homes apartments on the southeast area of the city is the brother of one of the six teens who died in the March 10 car accident.

Police found a “hole” in Fletcher’s body when they found him at 423 2nd Street at 8:50 p.m. Monday, but it wasn’t clear yet whether the hole came from a bullet or knife.

Lt. Jeff Cole of the Warren Police Department said police have little information so far, such as what may have led up to it.

Fletcher has a long criminal record including convictions for cocaine trafficking, crack-cocaine possession and other drug convictions. He has been to prison several times over the past 15 years for convictions originating out of Trumbull County.

Kyle Behner, 19, of Mesopotamia and Warren, brother of accident victim Kirklan Behner, received a knife wound at 2:50 a.m. today and went to St. Joseph Health Center, police said.

He and Nathaniel B. Ferrell, 20, of Milton Street Southeast, both reported getting knife wounds from a fight at an unknown location near the Trumbull Homes Apartments, police said.

Cole said the stabbings and the shooting of Michael B. Settle, 24, of Ohio Avenue in McDonald at Francis Street Southeast near Clarence Street Northeast appear to be related.

Also related, Cole believes, is the shooting of windows at Auto Trends, 2261 Youngstown Road, at about 4:16 a.m. Cole said the damage there is most likely from “stray bullets.”