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Shell casings sent to state lab in Youngstown firefighter shooting case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police have sent evidence collected at the scene where a city firefighter was shot in his firetruck Monday to the state crime lab.
Lt. Doug Bobovnyik of the detective bureau said shell casings collected from the area in the 100 block of Halleck Avenue, where Lt. Paul Lutton was wounded, will be tested by the state Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Bobovnyik said BCI has promised to put a “rush” on the case so investigators can have the evidence back as soon as possible.
Bobovnyik said the casings are from an assault-style weapon, but he declined to say what caliber they are.
Lutton, 46, was driving the truck for Engine Co. 7 about 11:25 p.m. Monday as firefighters were finishing fighting a fire at a vacant Elm Street home. Firefighters told police they saw someone in a driveway on Halleck Avenue when several shots were fired at the truck. Two bullets went through the door, one striking Lutton in the leg and another going through the protective gear of another firefighter but not striking him.
Lutton was treated at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital and released late Tuesday.
Because of the shooting, police will be escorting fire crews on all calls until an arrest can be made.
Investigators said there was an altercation at the scene of the fire before the shooting between a man and fire crews. The man drove off in a car after the argument. Bobovnyik said firefighters on the scene do not know who the man is.
Lt. Brian Butler, staff inspector at the police department, said bullets from an assault-style weapon can very easily pierce a steel door of a car or truck.
Butler said the two most common assault weapons that police typically find are an AK-47 or AR-15 type rifle. These fire bullets with enough velocity to not only puncture a door, but to have enough force even after that to penetrate flesh.
An AK-47 assault rifle fires a 7.62mm round, Butler said. The average speed for that round is more than 2,800 feet per second. For an AR-15 type rifle that typically uses .223-caliber ammunition, those bullets travel at about 3,020 feet per second.
Butler said bullets for assault weapons are also lighter and they have more propellant in them that help them to achieve those speeds.