Staff file photo / Ed Runyan Dre’Juan M. Cochrane, 25, left, was sentenced Friday to five to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to felonious assault and discharge of a firearm at or near prohibited premises and two one-year gun specifications in a 2022 case. His attorney is Joe Messuri.

YOUNGSTOWN — Dre’Juan M. Cochrane, 25, of West Ravenwood Avenue, received the five-to-seven-year prison sentence recommended by prosecutors Friday for firing a gun at a car driving down Cochrane’s street May 5, 2023.

Mahoning County prosecutors said they will not oppose Cochrane getting out of prison on judicial release after serving two years as long as Cochrane does not get written up for misconduct while in prison. Judicial release is a type of early release granted by the sentencing judge.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney suggested to Cochrane at the time Cochrane entered his guilty plea that she would allow Cochrane to be released from prison after serving two years if he accepted the plea agreement. She also told Cochrane if he took the case to trial and was convicted, she would sentence him to 17 years in prison.

She also told him that his crime was “on video.” Court documents state that the shooting was captured on a nearby doorbell camera.

According to Youngstown police, a 71-year-old woman was driving to her daughter’s house at 7:45 a.m. May 5, 2023, and went down Ravenwood Avenue on the South Side because of construction on Glenwood Avenue.

She said she saw two adults and two children walking in the middle of the street.

She said she honked the horn to let them know she was coming and then drove on the wrong side of the road to avoid them. A man smacked her passenger mirror with his hand, causing the mirror to fold back, police were told.

The woman said she heard popping noises and did not know if it was gunfire or someone throwing rocks at the car. She proceeded to her daughter’s house and called 911. Officers saw the bullet hole in the car and saw fuel leaking from it.

Officers were alerted to the gunfire by the city’s ShotSpotter system, which notifies Youngstown police of gunfire in the South Side. About the same time, Cochrane called 911 to report the episode, saying he was not armed.

When officers arrived at his home, Cochrane had his arms in the air and was cooperative. He was not carrying a firearm. He told police that he was walking his brother to the bus stop.

At Ravenwood near Hudson Avenue, Cochrane said a car “came out of nowhere and struck him.” Then the vehicle continued onward. He fired at the car, he said, to scare the person inside. He said the person in the car got out, so he fired his gun again. The person then drove away. Police seized Cochrane’s firearm.