Police: Argument preceded shooting outside bar

By Joe Gorman | February 10, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Police say it is too early to tell if the fatal shooting of a man outside a South Side jazz club early Saturday is connected to a homicide case in which he was a suspect.

Detectives are looking for a suspect in the death of 33-year-old Dejuan Thomas, said Lt. Doug Bobovnyik of the detective bureau. Thomas died at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital about 1 a.m. Saturday after he was rushed there from the Partners Jazz and Blues Lounge on Oak Hill Avenue.

Thomas was scheduled to appear in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court today for a pretrial hearing in an aggravated-murder case. He is one of two men charged in the death of 26-year-old Kristopher Stuart inside Stuart’s Elm Street home on April 29, 2013.

Thomas was indicted in May 2013, but those charges were dropped. He was re-indicted Oct. 16 in Stuart’s death.

Bobovnyik said it is too early in the investigation to tell if Thomas’ death is related to Stuart’s death. Bobovnyik said Thomas had an argument early Saturday inside the bar with someone and they went outside. That is when Thomas was shot, Bobovnyik said.

Someone then drove Thomas to the hospital, which is where police were called. The car used to take him to the hospital had a large amount of blood inside and a rear window was shattered, according to the police report. Thomas had a gunshot wound to the upper ribs. Police were able to recover a bullet from his body.

Bobovnyik said even though police initially were sent to the hospital, they still found a crime scene in front of the lounge. Bobovnyik said the shooting should have been easy to hear, but no one from inside called police.

Police are searching for a man between 20 and 25 years old, but Bobovnyik declined to give any more information on the suspect.

In the Stuart slaying, Thomas also was seriously wounded. Also indicted on an aggravated-murder charge in Stuart’s death is 18-year-old Kalonte Carter of Norwood Avenue. Police said Carter and Thomas were shooting at Stuart, and Stuart managed to return fire before he was killed. Carter also was shot.

Also indicted in the case was 36-year-old LaQuawn Hopkins of South Schneley Avenue on a charge of tampering with evidence.

Thomas was free on a $100,000, 10 percent bond he had posted after the original indictment. That bond was carried over when the case was re-indicted.

Thomas’ death is the second homicide in Youngstown this year. In 2014, Youngstown had 19 homicides.