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Victim shot twice

YOUNGSTOWN

Dr. Joseph Ohr, the Mahoning County forensic pathologist, said Tuesday a man found Monday morning in a burning sport utility vehicle was shot twice in the head.

Dr. Ohr said those gunshots were responsible for the man’s death. He said the man was dead before the SUV was set on fire.

The SUV was discovered about 7:40 a.m. Monday behind a vacant home on Edgar Street on the East Side. The man’s death is the city’s fourth homicide of 2017.

Dr. Ohr said a forensic dentist is assisting his office in determining the man’s identity. The man is between 30 and 40 years old. Police said Monday the SUV owner has been missing for some time.

Albert Street search

YOUNGSTOWN

Police late Tuesday were off of Albert Street near the Madison Avenue Expressway searching along guardrails after a report that someone had possibly dumped a body there.

Police said a passerby on the Expressway by Albert Street contacted them about apparently seeing the body dumped from an SUV, and after officers in two cruisers searched unsuccessfully, police contacted the citizen for more specific details.

Trial delayed

YOUNGSTOWN

A bench trial that was to get underway Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for two of six people charged with a number of crimes in 2011 and 2012 was moved to Friday.

Vincent Moorer, 31, faces two counts of aggravated murder along with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, aggravated arson and attempted murder charges. Melvin Johnson, 30, faces similar charges, but is not charged with any murders.

Prosecutors say the two were part of a drug ring on the East Side that killed at least three people and committed other crimes. Two men were convicted last year and two more people still have cases pending.

Cops follow tire trail

YOUNGSTOWN

A Liberty man wanted on two warrants from municipal court was arrested early Tuesday after he was spotted driving on a South Side street with only three tires.

Reports said an officer spotted burned rubber and pieces of tire about 2:35 a.m. and tracked them until he found an SUV driven by Louis Slepski, 35, of Northgate Avenue. Reports said Slepski told police he was driving away from a large fight at a Market Street gas station, and he must have ruptured the tire then. Slepski was taken to the Mahoning County jail.

Liberty trustees

LIBERTY

The township trustees will have a special meeting at noon today at the administration building, 1315 Church Hill-Hubbard Road.

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