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Two arraigned after house shot up
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Detectives say the motive behind a Clay Street house being shot up early Thursday stretches back more than a week to a dispute in a parking lot at the Plazaview Apartments.
Two men, Kalib Butler, 19, of Crandall Avenue and Jonathon Simmons, also 19, of Clearmont Avenue, were arraigned Friday in municipal court on charges of shooting into a habitation and felonious assault. Judge Elizabeth Kobly set their bond at $200,000 each.
City Prosecutor Dana Lantz also told Judge Kobly a warrant has been issued for a third person who detectives think shot up the house in the 1500 block of Clay Street about 3 a.m. Thursday.
Lantz said there were five minor children in the home at the time along with a 26-year-old woman and her 25-year-old boyfriend. No one was injured. Police collected 20 shell casings from the street outside the home.
Butler and Simmons were arrested Thursday morning when police spotted a car at a store at McGuffey Road and Wick Avenue that matched the description of the car that witnesses saw at the Clay Street home when shots were fired.
Police pulled the car over and learned that Butler had an open suspension on his license. Simmons had no open warrants, but he did have identification for several other people on him when he was searched, reports said.
A gunshot-residue test was also performed on both men, reports said.
Lantz said that a group of people actually came to the Clay Street home twice, and both times were told to leave. The second time they tried to force their way in and were forced out of the home, Lantz said. Shortly after, the home was fired on.
Lantz said one of the bullets ricocheted off a wall and hit the boyfriend in the back. He was not seriously injured.
Detective Sgt. Darryl Martin said the sister of one of the three men who are suspects in the house shooting was upset with someone in the house over an incident that happened in the Plazaview parking lot June 11, when there was a power outage there, and she wanted to fight, so she rounded up the men to help her.