Youngstown police arrest 2 in shooting death of woman in SUV

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy,com

YOUNGSTOWN

One of two people arrested late Friday in connection with a homicide earlier in the day was indicted Thursday by a grand jury on charges relating to a vice squad raid at his West Side home.

Dashonti Baker, 24, is in the Mahoning County jail on a charge of aggravated murder and Barraya Hickson, also 24, is in the jail on a charge of complicity.

The two are charged in the death of Rae’venna Faircloth-Thomas, 24, who was found shot to death in an SUV parked on the first block of Oneta Street.

Baker and Hickson were arrested after they were found a couple of hours later at a Millet Avenue home that Baker lists as his address, after police with the help of Community Police Unit officer George Wallace tracked a car there that witnesses said was involved in the homicide.

“The car had a very distinctive piece of damage to it,” said Detective Sgt. Mike Lambert, one of the investigators.

Baker and Hickson were taken to the detective bureau and the two were arrested after questioning. Lambert said police also got search warrants after talking to them but would not say what, if anything, was found.

Investigators are still not sure of a motive, Lambert said.

“We have a couple of different angles we’re looking at,” he said.

Police were called to the street for a call of someone firing shots from another car at an SUV. Lambert said witnesses told police Baker ran from the SUV to the car that was later found and it drove away.

When police arrived, they checked the SUV and found the victim’s body. Investigators processed the crime scene in a pouring rain.

On Thursday, Baker was indicted by a Mahoning County grand jury on drug charges and tampering-with-evidence charges stemming from a May 18 raid of his home by the vice squad and the Community Police Unit. When police arrived, reports said they found Baker and another man ripping apart plastic bags in a bathroom and pouring the contents into a toilet and flushing the toilet.

Officers also found three boxes of ammunition and several knives. He managed to post $12,500 bail in that case after he was arraigned in municipal court.

In 2015, Baker was acquitted of attempted-murder charges in common pleas court after he was charged with shooting a 15-year-old in the head during a drug robbery.