Man shot during service at cemetery

June 4, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Even during the height of street violence in the city during the 1990s, there was never a shooting during a funeral at Tod Homestead Cemetery, said the cemetery foreman.

That changed Wednesday when a man was shot in the arm about 1:10 p.m. after a scuffle during a service at the Belmont Avenue graveyard.

Doug Hemlick, who has worked there 34 years, said it was a first for him, but emotions already were high when attendees came in.

“There were tensions to begin with,” he said.

Detective Sgt. Darryl Martin, the lead investigator on the case, said there was a fight, and someone punched another man, and during that altercation, a gun fell to the ground. More struggling ensued and that’s when the man was shot, Martin said.

The victim was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital by ambulance. Police were looking for a car that was seen speeding away from the scene that purportedly had the gun that was used inside.

Police have not yet released the victim’s name. Martin said detectives still do not know if the person who was shot also was the person who took the gun to the service, or if that person managed to get away before police got there.

There was little physical evidence at the scene except a spent shell casing from a semiautomatic weapon.

The services were for Brenda Carol Weaver-Brown, 60, who died May 27.

Workers for L.E. Black, Phillips & Holden Funeral Home would not give their names but said there was a lot of arguing between different factions of the family at the cemetery. They said there was shouting back and forth before the gunfire.

“We were ducking,” one of them said.

Hemlick said mourners were walking back to their cars after a graveside ceremony ended when one man punched another.

“Then everyone converged to break it up, and that’s when we heard a pop,” he said.

Hemlick said Wednesday’s experience was new for him. The cemetery has had burials for several victims of the city’s gang violence, and while there were issues, they never escalated to the point of fisticuffs or gunfire.

“They’d come out of it with their attitude, but nothing like this,” he said.