Mom hears shots, finds son who falls through doorway

July 14, 2018 at 12:08a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

It was just before 4 a.m. Friday when Sandra Moss said she heard three shotgun blasts at her back door.

Then someone was banging on that door, and when she opened it, her son Delmas Pippin, 38, fell through the doorway.

Pippin was wounded and died later at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital of the wounds he suffered at his home in the 700 block of Wilbur Avenue on the South Side.

His death is the city’s ninth homicide of 2018.

Lt. Doug Bobovnyik said Pippin was “accosted” as he was coming home. He said detectives were trying to figure out if he was the victim of a robbery or if he had been targeted.

Inside her home, which was dark despite the sunshine outside, Moss was folding clothes and said she wants police to find whoever killed him as quickly as possible.

“I just want whoever did it to be caught, that’s all,” Moss said. “My son didn’t mess with no one. He was well liked.”

“He loved to shoot pool,” added a sister, Sharanda Pippin. “He was loved by everyone.”

Pippin also leaves behind three children, age 11, 5 and 3.

Moss said police told her it was a shotgun that was used to shoot her son.

“I heard three shots and a bang on the door,” Moss said. “When I opened my door, it was my son. He fell through the door.”

As of Friday afternoon, Bobovnyik said there were no updates on the case.

Moss said she did not understand who could kill her son because she said he was well liked. When asked about him, she said she did not want to talk about that. She said she wanted to focus on finding who killed him.

“I want them to feel like I am,” Moss said.

In 2017, Youngstown had a total of 28 homicides. At this time in 2017, there were 11 homicides.