Staff photos / Ed Runyan From left, Angie Rios and Will Rios of Youngstown sit near photos of their brother, William S. Rios, 33, who died Nov. 7, 2021, in Youngstown under suspicious circumstances. His death was ruled an accidental self-inflicted shooting death, but family members are not convinced.

YOUNGSTOWN — The initial police report into the Nov. 7, 2021, shooting death of William S. Rios, 33, outside of his apartment building on McGuffey Road near Wick Avenue was captioned “murder,” and it was assigned to Youngstown detectives.

Rios was found in the passenger seat of a Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck at 10:10 a.m. that day. The truck had crashed into a wooden fence in the rear parking lot.

It was only apparent later that Rios had died from a gunshot wound of the thigh that hit his femoral artery and killed him, probably within minutes, Mahoning County coroner investigators say. The case appears to have gotten no news coverage.

Rios’ unusual death became known only this month, when the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office filed Rios’ death certificate, ruling it accidental from a self-inflicted gunshot wound of the leg.

His brother and sister, however, say they are not convinced the brother they called “Tu Tu” died of a self-inflicted wound.

One reason is that his death occurred two weeks after a man Rios knew shot him in the back, during a frightening dispute among fellow drug abusers that led William to withdraw from his family — including nine children.

“It can’t be true. It’s unbelievable,” said his brother, Will Rios Jr.

THE DETAILS

A passerby who lived at the apartment saw the truck against the fence and called 911 at 10:10 a.m. Nov. 7. Coroner’s investigators believe William S. Rios had been dead since about 2:30 a.m.

A Youngstown police report obtained by The Vindicator this month states that Rios had a “substantial amount of blood on his lower body,” and it was “apparent the wounds were not from a crash.” A cellphone and a handgun were found near the body. A bullet shell casing was found in the vehicle, the report states.

The death certificate states that a shell casing was found a short distance away from the truck.

The police report also states blood, a crowbar and keys were found in an area filled with leaves a short distance behind the truck, which was still running. The radio was playing.

Paramedics determined that Rios, who had no signs of life when they arrived, had a gunshot wound of the right thigh. The body had a great deal of rigor mortis, an indication that he had died hours earlier.

The passenger door was open, and Rios’ legs were hanging out of it. The driver’s door was closed. Empty alcohol containers were found on the floor of the truck. Dried blood was on the steering wheel, dashboard and seats.

A book bag containing three plastic bags holding a white powdery substance, a cellphone and Suboxone was around Rios’ shoulder.

Rios had last been to the hospital Oct. 22, 2021, for a gunshot wound to the left abdomen that he sustained during an assault, his death certificate states.

DEATH RULING

After an autopsy by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office, Mahoning County Coroner David Kennedy ruled April 8 that Rios’ death was an accident as a result of a gunshot wound to the right thigh.

Kennedy told The Vindicator he ruled the death an accident because, “Everything points to he was playing with a gun and shot himself in the femoral artery and bled to death.”

Being shot in the femoral artery is a severe injury. “It bleeds a lot. It’s a big one, one of the main arteries off of the aorta,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said based on the investigation by Youngstown police detectives, no one else was known to be in the vehicle.

“Nobody else was seen getting out … Obviously, when you get gunshot like that, it could be suicide, it could be an accident, it could be a homicide, but it depends on the circumstances surrounding it. You have got to rely on the police reports and make sure the evidence all lines up with what the police think happened,” Kennedy said.

The investigation backs up the accidental nature of the death, Kennedy said.

The “stippling” found on the gunshot wound backs up the theory that Rios shot himself, Kennedy said. Stippling describes gunshot residues found in gunshot wounds from close and intermediate range, according to the www.pathologyboardreview.com web site.

“Stippling (or tattooing) is from the unburnt powder striking the skin and causing a superficial injury,” according to the website. “Gunpowder stippling cannot be wiped off and typically appears as numerous pinpoint abrasion-type injuries.”

Because of the stippling, this was “definitely a close-contact wound,” Kennedy said.

HOMICIDE?

When asked if someone else could have shot Rios, Kennedy said: “Unless someone was there, we can’t say for sure.”

He said he understands why the police initially thought it could be a homicide.

“When the first thing you see is a gunshot wound like that, you assume it was somebody else shooting,” Kennedy said.

As for why Rios did not get out of the truck or call 911, Kennedy said a gunshot wound to the femoral artery could cause loss of consciousness quickly.

“This isn’t something he spent a half hour or so. It probably happened within minutes,” Kennedy said.

The femoral artery is the main blood vessel supplying blood to a person’s lower body. It starts in the upper thigh near the groin and runs down the back of the knee, according to the Cleveland Clinic website.

Kennedy said he does not know what led to Rios shooting himself, but, “You could kind of see somebody with (a gun) in their waistband and driving in the car and whatever, trying to move it and it goes off,” he said.

Intoxication also could have been a factor, Kennedy said.

“Yea, he had some cocaine in him and alcohol, methamphetamines, so he was kind of inebriated and intoxicated, so I’m sure that makes it harder, makes it more likely, if you are handling a gun, to have an accident.”

Coroner investigators said they believe Rios was shot outside of the truck because of the amount of blood found behind the truck. It’s possible Rios got in the truck to get help for his gunshot wound but lost consciousness more quickly than he expected. The bullet that killed Rios matched the gun found in the truck.

The idea that Rios may have shot himself intentionally was considered a possibility because he had reported depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts after being shot two weeks before his death, coroner investigators said.

Coroner’s investigators say they do not believe Rios’ death was a murder, even though it is unusual. No surveillance cameras were set up in the parking lot where Rios died.

FAMILY

Two of his siblings, Will Rios Jr. and Angie Rios of Youngstown, say William S. Rios’ life was chaotic in the months before he died.

This chaos, they said, was because of disputes he was having with two men, one of whom was James J. Sheets, 35, of Youngstown, whom Struthers police shot to death at the end of a chase from Struthers to Youngstown on April 1.

Sheets and another Youngstown man had been threatening William in the weeks and months before his death, the siblings said.

William told family members that the other man he was “beefing” with shot him Oct. 22 in Youngstown, though William did not identify the man to Youngstown police, they said.

William and the two other men were mixed up with drugs and guns but originally had been friendly, the siblings said.

The second man, who is still alive, was indicted last year after a police chase, according to court records.

An Oct. 22, 2021, Youngstown police report into the shooting of William in the back states that they were sent to Nielsen Avenue because of William S. Rios being shot in the side. It says he was in stable condition and transported to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. It lists two women as being “involved” persons but does not list a suspect or any other details.

William’s siblings said he was on a motorcycle and riding it over the Center Street Bridge with one of the women behind him in a car, when she saw the man who is still alive following them. The man shot William from behind while they were on Nielsen Avenue, and the bullet exited his side.

After the shooting, Will said he and another brother asked William if he wanted any help, “and he said there was no fixing the problems he had,” Will said.

Angie Rios said William stopped coming to see his family a couple of months before he died because he did not want the people threatening him to hurt his family.

William also had sent a message to his wife that suggested he thought he might be killed. He also wore a bulletproof vest at times, Angie said.

The siblings say William and Sheets were in a dispute over the truck William was using at the time he died. Sheets bought it but never registered it. He gave it to William as payment for something else, but they argued over it, Angie and Will said.

Photographs of the truck showed that the steering column had been hot-wired so that it could be operated without a key.

DEATH

Will and Angie said the 24 hours or so after William died was excruciating because “the streets” told them their brother was dead, but it took much longer after that to get confirmation from the coroner’s office or police. Before they could see William’s body, it had been taken to Cuyahoga County for an autopsy, Angie said.

They said they learned about two weeks ago that William’s death had been ruled accidental.

Angie says she thinks “somebody had to approach” William before he was shot.

Angie and Will said they also do not believe William killed himself.

“He loved his dad too much to kill himself, and he had nine kids,” Angie said. “He started hanging around with trash, and now he’s gone.”

Capt. Jason Simon, head of the Youngstown Police Department detective division, said he agrees that Rios was in conflict with several individuals around the time of his death, but “all of the evidence we gathered, both through investigation and scientific analysis, unequivocally indicates this was an accidental death, though the apparent conflicts do explain why he had a firearm on his person.”

Simon said he does not know if the owner of the keys found near the truck was ever identified.

erunyan@vindy.com