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Chief: Help police end killing spree
YOUNGSTOWN
Police Chief Robin Lees is appealing to city residents for help to end and solve the spate of homicides in the city, including the most recent killing early Sunday on the East Side.
Police responded to a call at 1:55 a.m. Sunday reporting multiple shots fired in the area of Bennington and Stewart avenues, said Lt. Doug Bobovnyik.
The unidentified victim, a male believed to be in his 20s, is Youngstown’s 21st homicide of the year and the ninth since Oct. 14, according to Vindicator records.
When police arrived at the scene of the latest homicide, they found a car that had run off the road into a vacant lot at the corner of Bennington and Stewart.
In the vehicle’s front passenger seat, officers found a deceased male who had been shot multiple times.
They also found another man, identified as Carl Davis, 22, believed to be of Warren, who was shot at least twice before fleeing the vehicle to a nearby house on Stewart to summon help.
Bobovnyk said Davis, who was in stable condition at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, refused to talk to police.
Based on evidence collected at the scene, police believe there was more than one shooter.
However, as of late Sunday, they have no witnesses to the shootings and have not identified the victim.
“We have no clue at this time as to the motive or circumstances surrounding the shootings,” said Bobovnyik.
One of the problems in solving the homicides is that they all appear to be unrelated, said Lees.
“If there was something in common, we’d have more to go on,” he said.
“Hopefully, we’ll get tips from residents. We’re trying to work it backwards to establish what happened. Another problem in solving crimes is that a certain cultural violence exists in some neighborhoods; and people don’t want to be involved,” the police chief said.
“By tomorrow, I expect we’ll know more when we have more forensic evidence. Also, once we get identities of the victims we can look into their backgrounds, which may give us a direction to go,” Lees said.