20th homicide in city surpasses 2014 total
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
The death of a West Side man early Saturday on the South Side is the 20th homicide of the year in the city, surpassing last year’s total of 19.
Thomas Owens, 33, of Burbank Avenue was shot in the back of the head about 12:20 a.m. Saturday as he sat in a parked car in front of a home in the 500 block of West Myrtle Avenue.
Owens’ death is the fourth homicide in Youngstown dating back to Nov. 6, when a woman was beaten to death in her Cleveland Street home.
Lt. Doug Bobovnyik of the detective bureau said someone from a passing car fired several rounds at the car Owens was in. He said he was not yet sure if more than one weapon was fired but police recovered “many, many” shell casings.
“It looks like a lot of rounds were fired,” Bobovnyik said.
None of the people in the car with Owens was injured.
The lead investigator on the case is Detective Sgt. Mike Lambert, who charged a man Friday in connection with a Nov. 7 homicide on Montclair Avenue.
Bobovnyik also is working on identifying a man found in a burning car in an Otis Street parking lot on the North Side late Thursday. Police are treating his death as a homicide.
In the Cleveland Street case, a man has been charged and was indicted on death-penalty specifications by a grand jury this week.