Shooting victim dies

Staff report

youngstown

Youngstown police are investigating the city’s second homicide of 2015.

Dejuan Thomas, 33, no address available, who was shot early Saturday morning in front of the Partners Jazz and Blues Lounge on Oak Hill Avenue, died while being treated in the emergency room at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, according to a police report.

Police were called to the hospital for a victim with a gunshot wound, where an officer found a Dodge Neon parked at the emergency- room entrance with the passenger door open, a large amount of blood in the car and the back passenger window shattered.

The officer was told the victim was being treated and was in very critical condition.

The gunshot wound was near his rib cage, the report said.

The person who brought Thomas to the hospital told the officer the shooting happened in front of the club and gave a description of the shooter.

The suspect is a 20- to 25-year-old man.

It was not the first time a man was slain at the club. The club’s manager, Curtis Moses, 43, was gunned down just before 2:45 a.m. June 22, 2012, as he headed to his car in the parking lot.

Thomas’ death is the second homicide in the city this year. Mike Iwaniuk, 84, was found dead near his front door Jan. 21, having been dead for more than a day, on the West Side. He had been beaten to death with a blunt object.

At this time in 2014, the city had recorded no homicides. The first occurred last year on March 31 from a shooting on South Avenue.