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Driver charged in death of YSU football player

YSU football player killed in city crash

YOUNGSTOWN — A criminal complaint was filed Tuesday in Youngstown Municipal Court charging Adrienne E. Washington Jr., 19, in the Feb. 6 crash that killed former Youngstown State University football player Darius Shackleford, 24.

Washington is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and felony leaving the scene of an accident, but is not in custody, and no arraignment date is listed in the case.

Youngstown police said Washington’s car hit Shackleford’s car at 11:54 p.m. at the intersection of Albert Street and McGuffey Avenue while Washington was fleeing from a Youngstown police car. Washington fled on foot but was apprehended.

Shackleford was from Newark and was part of the YSU football team from 2015 to 2020.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown called Shackleford “innocent by all accounts” during a news conference at the police department last month.

The incident began with a patrol officer observing a “dangerous traffic violation” at the intersection of Albert Street and the Himrod Avenue Expressway, police Chief Carl Davis said. Washington ran a red light.

“This vehicle was headed in the opposite direction of the officer,” he said. “As the officer turned around and activated his lights and sirens, this vehicle at a high rate of speed fled northbound on Albert Street through a red light, subsequently crashing into Mr. Shackleford’s vehicle that was traveling westbound at McGuffey in the intersection.”

The distance from the point where the officer turned around until Washington’s vehicle crashed at the intersection is about three-tenths of a mile, about five blocks.

A passenger in Washington’s car, 17, did not flee. Both were interviewed and later released.

Davis said the police department is conducting an internal affairs administrative investigation into the matter.

“We want to make sure all proper policies and procedures were followed,” he said.

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