Warren detectives begin to investigate apparent weekend homicides

Staff report

WARREN

Police have identified Heaven L. Townsend, 21, of Hillman Way in Youngstown as the woman found dead in the grass Saturday night near the office of the Fairview Gardens apartments on Duke Street Southwest.

Police said they were called there at 10:51 p.m. for about 30 gunshots. They found Townsend on the ground, and she had been shot.

Police continued to investigate the death Monday but said they have not made any arrests. Police followed up on various leads Saturday, including vehicles that might have been connected to the case.

Townsend was booked into the county jail March 11 after being found in a car with a Youngstown man who was arrested that day on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle.

Liberty police said they made a traffic stop on Belmont Avenue at 1:57 a.m. and found that Townsend had a warrant for failure to appear out of Girard Municipal Court on a driving-under-suspension charge.

The man pleaded guilty Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to carrying a concealed weapon and will be sentenced later.

Police also identified the man they found dead in a field in the 2400 block of Northwest Boulevard Northwest on Sunday as William L. Williams, 19, of Freeman Street Northwest.

Police said they responded to that area at 5:25 p.m. for shots fired and found Williams against a fence in the field. He had been shot in the face.

Police were trying to determine Sunday whether the shooting might have occurred Friday.

The Trumbull County Coroner’s office said autopsies have not been completed in either case.

If the two deaths are ruled homicides, they might be Nos. 7 and 8 for the year, six of them since July 10.

A ruling on one shooting death from Aug. 3 in a car on Southern Boulevard has not been finalized. Warren had four homicides in 2016.