YOUNGSTOWN — A pair of shooting deaths late Thursday night and Friday afternoon has prompted an increased police presence throughout the city “for the foreseeable future.”

An increased patrol of Youngstown Police Department officers, as well as others from the Mahoning County Violent Crimes Task Force and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office was announced at a news conference Saturday afternoon at the police station downtown.

“Tonight and in the coming days, we have a gun-reduction detail of officers working to find and arrest those people who we believe are carrying weapons and using them as an answer to their problems,” Youngstown police Chief Carl Davis said. “You will be seeing a high volume of police activity in many of your neighborhoods as we look to take these guns off our streets.”

Both Davis and Mayor Jamael Tito Brown pleaded with city residents for calm and rational thinking during this time.

“Mayor Brown and I continue to call upon those committing these crimes to stop what they are doing and think about the consequences these actions have on the entire community,” Davis said.

The call for peace comes on the heels of two deadly shootings on the city’s South Side in less than 24 hours. One occurred just before midnight Thursday in the 3200 block of South Avenue, and another around 4:30 p.m Friday in the 3400 block of Market Street. The latest killings mark the city’s third and fourth homicides of the year.

The 30-year-old man was found dead with gunshot wounds in a parking lot on South Avenue. The other, a 19-year-old man, died after being taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. Neither of their identities have been released, pending an investigation by the coroner’s office. Brown and Davis could not confirm if the two shootings were related.

One of Brown’s concerns following the two deaths is “street justice” in the form of retaliation.

“I ask that you let law enforcement do their job. Let’s not have street justice; let’s let the justice of the courts decide,” Brown said.

He shared a personal story about losing a loved one to gun violence.

“I know that anger and bitterness is in your heart,” Brown said. “Anytime anyone loses a loved one, those emotions come into play and we’re just asking for a cooling-off period to allow cooler heads to prevail and to let the men and women of law enforcement do their jobs.”

The increase in officers is upwards of 30, YPD Lt. Brian Butler said.

“It’s a continuation of the gun-reduction program that we’ve been running, but this is a little different. We have more manpower than we usually do,” Butler said. “A lot of help from the task force should supplement the gun-reduction detail, so you will see both marked and unmarked vehicles in the neighborhoods.”

Davis said the uptick in officers will be around for the foreseeable future, saying it could be weeks.

“If it takes longer than that, we’re out there,” Davis said.

nhawthorne@tribtoday.com