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Neighbors hear shots in North Side homicide
Photo
Damous
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Neighbors on the street where a man was shot to death Sunday evening say they heard the shots.
Police were called to 721 Lexington Ave. about 9:45 p.m. for a report of shots fired and a man inside a van and found 22-year-old Devon Damous of Ford Avenue slumped over the steering wheel dead from several gunshot wounds.
His death is the 18th homicide of the year in the city.
Tommy Johnson, who lives next door, said he heard the shots.
“It was just like tap, tap, tap,” Johnson said.
Robert Tate, who also lives in the home and has been in the neighborhood since 1959, said he heard the shots, too, along with Johnson.
“It was a knocking like,” Tate said. “He [Johnson] looked to the door and said, ‘I don’t see anything,’ then we saw a cop car.”
A woman who was outside to have a cigarette on her porch Monday morning and did not want her name to be used said the shots disturbed her sleep.
“It woke me up,” the woman said. “And then I just hit the floor and then I heard a car pull off.”
E. Robert Cathey, who lives across the street, said Sunday night he did not know anything was going on until he saw the police. He said the street is a good one.
“This is a really cool neighborhood,” Cathey said. “We don’t have no problems up here.”
Lt. Doug Bobovnyik of the Detective Bureau said someone either walked up to the van and shot Damous or shot him from inside the van. The driver’s-side window on the van was shattered and there were also bullet holes in the driver’s door. Police towed the car to examine it for evidence.
One thing that hampered evidence collecting Sunday evening was a steady rain, strong winds and the darkness that came from a lack of streetlights as well as heavy clouds overhead.
“It makes it more of a challenge,” Bobovnyik said.
Court records show Damous was serving two years’ probation after pleading guilty earlier this year to a felony charge of possession of drugs in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He was charged after being caught in a raid by the Vice Squad in January in a Hunter Street home where heroin, cocaine and two semiautomatic handguns were found.
He also was arrested for receiving stolen property in 2011 and Vindicator files show he was a member of the last Chaney High School 4 x 100 relay team that made it to the regional track meet, also in 2011.
Damous’ death was the fourth homicide within a week in the city. Bobovnyik said none of this homicides appears to be related.
In 2013, Youngstown had 20 homicides. At this point last year, the city had recorded 16 murders.
Tate stood on his porch and showed a visitor the empty lots that used to have houses and some of the vacant houses and explained who used to live in them.
He said the neighborhood has always been good — until Sunday evening.
“Everything’s been nice before this happened,” Tate said.