Shooting victim joined civil suit last year involving crash that killed six teens

Staff report

WARREN

The man who suffered multiple gunshot wounds early Friday at an apartment on Duke Street Southeast, where people were marking the three-year anniversary of a traffic crash that killed six Warren teens, had joined a civil suit involving the crash last year.

Brian K. Henry, 21, of Milton Street Southeast, is recovering in St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

The man charged with shooting him, Ryan. D. Owens, 25, of First Street Southwest, is in the Trumbull County Jail, not eligible to make bond.

A not-guilty plea was entered for Owens to felonious assault in Warren Municipal Court.

Police say they don’t know a motive for the shooting, but it’s possible there is a connection between the shooting and the March 10, 2013, accident, which was on Niles Warren River Road about a mile south of downtown.

Henry and another teen survived and went to a home on Burton Street for help. They said they tried to flag down passing cars for help, but none would stop.

Henry filed a civil suit Feb. 12, 2015, in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that was similar to ones filed in 2014 by the families of four of the teens who died – Dylan Ray, 15; Kirklan Behner, 15; Andrique Bennett, 14; and Brandon A. Murry, 14.

In the lawsuits, Henry, like the families of the boys, sought compensation from the county and city, alleging that lack of maintenance of the road and guardrail caused the vehicle to hit the guardrail and flip into a pond upside-down.

The lawsuit is pending, and Henry’s suit was merged into the suit by the families of the four who died.

In Henry’s suit, he seeks damages for the physical injuries he suffered, as well as emotional distress and anxiety.

The driver of the car, Alexis Cayson, 19, also died in the crash.

Henry and the other survivor, Asher Lewis, 18, gave depositions in the case in December.