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Man dies, wife wounded, in East Side home attack
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man fatally shot Friday morning in his East Side home is the half brother of a man who died this week after being shot March 8.
Brad Blackburn, chief of detectives, said investigators will be looking to see if the two shootings are connected but it is too early to say for sure.
Ronald Lewis, 49, and his wife were both shot inside their 1358 Atkinson Ave. home about 6:35 a.m. The wife is being treated at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.
Javel Bates, 40, the half brother of Lewis, died in the hospital Wednesday. On March 8, he was shot on Josephine Avenue, then drove himself to the Atkinson Avenue home of his half brother, where he was taken to St. Elizabeth by ambulance.
Should the deaths of Bates and Lewis be ruled homicides, they would increase the city’s total to six in 2017. Youngstown had 18 homicides in 2016 and did not record its sixth homicide until April 3. All the 2017 homicides but one have taken place on the East Side.
Blackburn said it appears at least two people were involved in Friday’s attack. He would not say if they forced their way inside but that they did not belong in the home.
At Friday’s crime scene, several friends and relatives clustered in the side of the yard, and one woman who drove up ran through the police tape up to the house. Officers escorted her out of the area that was taped off, then extended the crime scene. Detectives and crime-scene investigators worked exclusively inside the home.
When the body was removed from the scene, one man had to be restrained by an onlooker from following the van carrying it. A woman cried, “Give me my brother back!”
In the Bates shooting, police said he was shot while he was outside a Josephine Avenue home by someone who was inside. Police had to call in officers with SWAT training to breach the door, but weapons were all they found inside.
The owner of the home was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm but did not face any charges in Bates’ shooting. That person had his case bound over to a grand jury but is free after posting $20,000 bond.