UPDATE | Y'town woman is city's first homicide of 2019

YOUNGSTOWN

Police collected about 40 shell casings Thursday evening outside a McBride Street apartment on the East Side where a woman was shot to death.

Lt. Brian Welsh said detectives are trying to figure out if the woman was killed in a case of mistaken identity or was caught in the crossfire of an exchange of gunfire. He said today he did not want to speculate as investigators were gathering information.

Although police would not confirm the victim’s name, a friend of hers, Fantasia Aponte, said she is Crystal Hernandez, 24.

Aponte said she did not find out about her friend’s death until this morning, when she saw it on social media.

Aponte said Hernandez was studying to be a makeup artist. She said the two planned to get together this weekend to do each other’s makeup and Hernandez was going to film it for YouTube as a tutorial, something which Aponte said Hernandez liked to do.

“I’m honestly stuil at a loss for words,” Aponte said.

Hernandez left behind a 2-year-old son, Aponte said.

Her death is the first homicide in 2019 in Youngstown. In 2018 the city had 26 homicides.