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Cops probe three shootings in three days
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Shootings Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning that injured two people on the South Side gave police three shooting investigations in less than 72 hours.
About 12:50 a.m. Tuesday, police were called to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital on a report that someone was dropped off there with a gunshot wound. They found a car in front of the emergency-room entrance and were told the passenger, Hiawatha Johnson, 27, came in to be treated for a gunshot wound behind his ear.
Reports said Johnson told police he was driving west on East Indianola Avenue near Market Street to a friend’s home and was talking on the phone when he discovered he was bleeding and realized he was shot, reports said. Reports said Johnson told officers he saw no one shooting at him. He made it to the friend’s place, and that friend drove him to the hospital, reports said.
Reports also said a gunfire sensor detected shots being fired in the area shortly before Johnson said he was shot, but a few blocks away from where Johnson was.
Reports said Johnson is under house arrest because of a gun charge.
Records from Mahoning County Common Pleas Court show Johnson has an April 2 plea hearing before Judge Maureen Sweeney on charges of trafficking in heroin, possession of heroin, being a felon in possession of a firearm and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle.
The charges stem from a July 28 arrest in which Johnson was found driving a car belonging to a man who was killed. The body of Zachary Frischkorn, 27, was found earlier that morning in the 300 block of Carroll Street.
Johnson was questioned in Frischkorn’s slaying but was not charged.
Records from common pleas court show Johnson has felony convictions from 2008, 2012 and 2013 that prohibit him from having a firearm.
About 5:15 p.m. Monday, police also were called to St. Elizabeth’s after someone dropped off Marcius Macklin, 20, in the emergency room with a gunshot wound to his chest.
A witness told detectives he was in a car with Macklin and another man at Erie Street and East Midlothian Boulevard when they saw three men in the street. Those men began arguing with Macklin and the other two people in the car. The three men in the car stopped and got out, and one of the men in the street pulled a gun and shot Macklin, reports said.
The car’s driver took Macklin to the hospital, dropped off him and the witness and left, then came back later with his family in another car, saying he did not want to stay after he dropped Macklin off because he was scared, reports said.
Wounded about 10:20 p.m. Sunday in a Tyrell Avenue apartment on the West Side were Ryan Friendly, 24, and Aeriyka Gentry, 21. Friendly was shot in the abdomen, and Gentry was shot in the head. Chief of Detectives Capt. Brad Blackburn said Tuesday investigators were able to interview Gentry on Monday at St. Elizabeth’s, but she did not have a lot of information.
Friendly is in critical condition, and investigators have been unable to talk to him, Blackburn said.