Pair indicted for '12 double homicide
By Joe Gorman
jgorman@vindy,.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Two men already in the Mahoning County jail on unrelated charges were charged in juvenile court with a June 2012 double homicide.
Willie Daniel Jr., 18, and Tijuan Muldrow, no age available, are each charged with aggravated murder with firearm specifications for the June 1, 2012, slayings of 20-year-old Ibn Shakoor of McBride Street and Michael Johnson, also 20, of Katherine Street.
Shakoor and Johnson were found shot to death in a Chevrolet Tahoe that morning as they were sitting in Shakoor’s vehicle listening to music. Police said almost two dozen shots were fired at the SUV. A third man also was inside listening to music but was not injured.
Detective Sgt. Darryl Martin, lead investigator on the case and who filed the charges Thursday, said the pair were killed in a case of mistaken identity.
Although Daniel and Muldrow are now adults, they were juveniles at the time the crime was committed, so he had to file charges in juvenile court, he explained.
He said Daniel and Muldrow were looking for Ryan Slade, 20, who was killed in September 2012 along with 19-year-old Keara McCullough as they were sitting in a car on Benford Lane on the East Side.
Martin said one of the victims resembled Slade, and the SUV the two were in matched a vehicle Slade was known to be driving at the time.
The detective said the case took a long time to investigate because of the number of people he needed to talk to, and police needed other people to come forward.
Two men have been charged in Slade’s death — Dewaylyn Colvin, 20, and Michael Austin Jr., also 20. They have yet to be tried.
Police found no evidence Shakoor or Johnson were involved in any criminal activity at the time they were killed. Neither man had a substantial criminal record.
Daniel is in the county jail awaiting trial on a charge of aggravated robbery and carrying concealed weapons. The pending charges against Muldrow could not be confirmed Thursday.