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Warren police investigate murder, shooting, stabbings
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Police are investigating the shooting death of 45-year-old Rodney Fletcher, found dead at his home on Second Street Southwest of a gunshot to the neck.
Police found a hole, later identified as being from a bullet, in Fletcher’s neck when they found him at 8:50 p.m. Monday at 423 Second St. SW.
Lt. Jeff Cole of the Warren Police Department said police don’t have any other information to release. Police were called “to the area of Second Street Southwest in reference to an unknown problem,” a police report said.
It is the first homicide in Warren since a New Year’s Day shooting inside the Sunset Lounge on East Market Street.
Fletcher has a long criminal record, including convictions for cocaine trafficking, crack-cocaine and other drug crimes. He has been in prison several times over the past 15 years for convictions in Trumbull County.
Police also are investigating a shooting and two stabbings around 4 a.m. Tuesday that they believe are related to one another.
One of the victims is the brother of one of the six teens who died in the March 10 car accident on Niles Warren River Road a mile south of downtown.
Kyle Behner, 19, of Mesopotamia and Warren, brother of accident victim Kirklan Behner, 15, suffered knife wounds during a fight at 2:50 a.m. Tuesday and went to St. Joseph Health Center, police said. The second man is Nathaniel B. Ferrell, 20, of Milton Street Southeast.
The assaults took place in the Trumbull Homes apartments between Youngstown Road and Niles Road in the southeast area.
Officials at St. Joseph Health Center did not return calls inquiring about the conditions of the men.
Behner and Ferrell said they were “at an unknown residence somewhere near the Trumbull Homes, got into an argument with an unknown white male who brandished a commando-style knife and cut both victims,” a Warren police report says.
At 3:59 a.m. Michael B. Settle, 24, of Ohio Avenue in McDonald was shot in the chest on Francis Street Southeast near Clarence Street.
He was transferred from ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital on Tuesday, but a hospital spokesperson said she could not say where Settle went.
Lt. Cole said he believes gunfire at Auto Trends, 2261 Youngstown Road, about 4:16 a.m. is related to the Settle shooting, most likely the result of “stray bullets.”