Homicide, shooting, beating, drug arrests keep Youngstown cops busy

YOUNGSTOWN

Police have had their hands full investigating a homicide, another shooting, a beating and also made three felony drug arrests.

Detectives are investigating after an injured man who was found about 10:20 p.m. Thursday in a South Side home later died.

A police news release classified the death as a homicide. If an autopsy rules it is a homicide, it will be the city’s 26th of 2017.

Police were called to a home in the 100 block of East Judson Avenue, where a 35-year-old man was found unconscious with blood on him. The man was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital but he died on the way, the release said.

An examination at the hospital found the victim had a bullet wound, the release said. Chief of Detectives Capt. Brad Blackburn said there was a not a lot of blood when the man was found, and the bullet wound was not readily apparent until the victim was checked at the hospital.

Police are also investigating a beating in the 2600 block of South Avenue about 1:45 a.m. today, where a man was beaten at a salvage yard by three men with a torch and chain and suffered cuts over his face and head, including one that went through to his skull, reports said. The man is being treated at St. Elizabeth.

And at a Matta Avenue home on the West Side, Jeffona Thompson of Victor Street and Percy Phillips were arrested on a charge of tampering with evidence and a felony charge of possession of heroin, respectively, and taken to the Mahoning County jail.

Read more about the crimes in Saturday's Vindicator or o Vindy.com.