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WARREN -- Police detectives and the city prosecutor credited the vantage points of several security cameras in the area and cooperation from the public with the arrest of a Warren man suspected of using an AR-15 rifle in a fatal drive-by shooting near the Hot Dog Shoppe on Thursday evening.
Domenic Harvey, 20, of Hillsdale Drive NW, was arraigned in Warren Municipal Court on Friday morning on murder and felonious assault charges.
Jauton Lee, 23, died of gunshot wounds, according to chief of detectives Capt. Robert Massucci, lead detective John Greaver and assistant city law director Traci Timko, who conducted a late morning news conference about the events of the last 24 hours. Mitchell Powell, 24, remains hospitalized in serious condition.
The three officials contrasted the cooperation they found investigating the West Market Street shooting with the lack of the same in a shooting early Friday morning on Charles Avenue SE that saw a severely injured gunshot victim transferred by air from Trumbull Regional Medical Center to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.
"We are literally at a dead end because of the lack of cooperation there," Massucci said.
The Charles Avenue victim was not identified.
Thursday's gunshots were fired about 6:25 p.m. in front of the popular Warren restaurant.
"The shooting did not take place on the Hot Dog Shoppe property, but the victims turned their vehicle into the lot there," Massucci said.
An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle.
At Friday's court hearing, Harvey, with the help of public defender Carlo Ciccone, pleaded not guilty to the felony charges that carry at least 18 years in prison. Municipal Judge Terry Ivanchak ordered Harvey held in Trumbull County jail without bond. Harvey was arrested just after midnight.
Harvey's family told the judge that it planned to hire an attorney for the defendant. Ivanchak set a preliminary hearing for July 28.
SHOT IN SUV
Lee and Powell were shot while driving east on West Market Street in a sport utility vehicle. Someone in a passing eastbound vehicle fired at them.
The detectives stated there were only two people in the SUV, and one person in a silver vehicle, identified as a Chrysler 300, was using an AR-15.
Four shell casings were found.
The wounded were taken to Trumbull Regional, with one taken there by a passer-by. Lee died a short time later at the hospital.
Witnesses told 911 dispatchers they heard eight or nine shots, but Greaver did not want to put a number on them, saying there were more than a few.
The detectives would not speculate on reasons for the shootings, saying the investigation is ongoing, but they ruled out road rage.
AT THE SCENE
After the shooting, the restaurant closed after Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers blocked off West Market Street from Highland Avenue to Tod Avenue during the investigation.
Detectives said the shooter's vehicle was identified because of the different angles of the security cameras at the intersection and at the nearby Sunoco service station.
"The different vantage points (of the security cameras) created a story for us that told what happened," Massucci said.
In addition to cooperating members of the public, Massucci also thanked the responding officers from Warren city, Warren Township and the state patrol in helping with the investigation.
Timko noted that police did their job as usual, but the difference for such a quick arrest was the cooperation of the public.
"We need you to help police get these people off the streets," Timko said in addressing the community.
In a few hours, detectives said they tracked down Harvey and conducted interviews with the suspect. They said they believe the man acted alone.
"He doesn't have much of a criminal history," Greaver said.
Trumbull County jail records show Harvey was arrested once before, in October 2020, on a misdemeanor assault charge. That charge, according to court records, was reduced to disorderly conduct in which he was placed on two years probation from Warren Municipal Court. Some 29 days of his 30-day jail sentence was suspended.
LINKED TO ANOTHER
Massucci said Harvey may be a suspect in a drive-by shooting incident involving a silver car on Bonnie Brae NE where a 5-year-old girl on a bicycle was almost in the line of fire. Massucci said no one was hurt in that incident but lamented the fact that no one cooperated with detectives.
"That may have prevented Thursday's shooting if somebody had spoken up," Massucci said.
Timko in commenting on the increasing number of violent incidents involving guns in the city said most of the shooters and the victims are in their late teens and early 20s.
"Something's going on. It is incredible to see the level of gun violence going on in that population," she said, noting that she has her theories but would not elaborate.
Massucci said it is unacceptable that a police force the size of Warren would rival a city the size of Youngstown in the number of guns that are being taken off the streets.
"We are running neck and neck," he said.
Timko, however, said there are too many people accepting the fact that "pulling a trigger is a way to solve disputes."
"We've never seen it on that level before," she said.