YPD exceeds US average for solving homicides

YOUNGSTOWN — City police homicide investigators point to teamwork as the reason the department was able to solve well over the national percentage of homicides in 2015.

Of the 22 homicides in the city, 17 have been solved, a rate of 77 percent, which is above the FBI national average of 64.1 percent.

However, the death of a 2-month-old baby Dec. 29 of injuries sustained Dec. 15 is expected to be ruled a homicide, giving the city 23 for 2015. The baby’s father was arrested on a charge of felonious assault before the baby died, and the charge is expected to be upgraded.

Capt. Brad Blackburn, chief of detectives, and his second in command, Lt. Doug Bobovnyik, both stressed that it is the work of all divisions of the department, from the first patrol officers who answer a call to the crime-scene officers who collect evidence to U.S. marshals who hunt for suspects that help detectives solve their cases.

Blackburn said about 90 percent of the city’s homicides this year are ones in which the victim and suspect had some sort of relationship. Bobovnyik said of the homicides this year, not many were what he termed “street crimes,” or random violence claiming victims.

In 2014, Youngstown recorded 19 homicides. In 2015, one death that was being investigated as a homicide, where a man’s body was found in a burning car on Otis Street in November, is no longer being classified as a homicide.

For the complete story, read Friday's Vindicator and Vindy.com