YOUNGSTOWN — When a man was shot to death Friday afternoon outside of a South Side barber shop, it broke a streak of zero homicides in the city dating back to Nov. 10 — a streak of 130 days or more than four months.

Youngstown spokesman Andy Resnick confirmed that officers were called to the barber shop at 719 Canfield Road about 12:10 p.m. for a report of several gunshots and found a man shot to death in the parking lot. Several bullet shell casings were found in the lot close to Glenwood Avenue.

Police are looking for information regarding a gray Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack in connection with the homicide, according to the Youngstown Police Department Facebook page. They ask anyone who recognizes the car or has any information to contact YPD at 330-747-7911.

2025 HOMICIDES

Last year, Youngstown had 13 homicides with the death of Nicole Carbone, 37, as the final homicide of the year. She was found dead Nov. 10 in a vacant lot at Belleview and East Chalmers avenues on the South Side.

Carbone was identified using fingerprints. The death was initially treated as “suspicious” but is now classified as a homicide. She had five children, her obituary stated.

Carbone’s death was the 13th homicide of the year in 2025 — the lowest number since at least 1967, the earliest year records are available, according to the Youngstown Police Department. There were 14 homicides in 1967. Youngstown had 20 homicides in 2024.

2025 was the last of five years with Carl Davis as Youngstown police chief. New Youngstown mayor Malcolm McDowell named Sharon Cole as police chief in December. She took over Jan. 1.

Under Davis, the number of homicides dropped from 31 in 2021 to 13 in 2025.

In an interview in late December, Davis recalled the many initiatives that were undertaken during his first year as chief to address killings that brought heartache to the city, such as the Aug. 18, 2021, shooting death of Persayus Davis May, 10, while she was in her home on the South Side.

Authorities believe she was an unintended victim of shots intended for adults who were in the front yard of her family’s home. Then-mayor Jamael Tito Brown cried at a press conference at the Youngstown Police Department Aug. 18, 2021, as he called the girl’s death “a dark day for our community, probably the darkest I’ve ever had as mayor of the city of Youngstown.”

Among the initiatives undertaken was thecreation of the police department’s Neighborhood Response Unit, “a group of young, highly trained officers whose mission was to identify the bad actors involved in this crime, investigate and arrest those individuals committing these crimes and take them off of our streets,” Davis said.

Meanwhile, the police department strengthened its partnerships with the State Highway Patrol, the FBI, the U.S Marshals Service, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, Davis said.

“And we announced the Impact Initiative,” Davis said of a program the police department introduced Sept. 8, 2021, to address increasing levels of crime and a smaller workforce that received notice and accolades among officials in other parts of the state.

Davis also mentioned the installation of pole cameras in various areas of the city a couple of years ago. “I can turn on this TV now and show you areas in the city where we have them. It’s a great tool for our investigators, our detectives. They have helped solve a number of crimes, including homicides,” Davis said.

And he mentioned the Flock camera system that began in August 2024 that involved the purchase of 56 license-plate recognition cameras for the police department that alert police when a vehicle comes through the city that has been reported stolen.

He also noted the relationships between the police department and community members, such as pastors. He and others at the YPD participated in marches with pastors that he thinks “helped bridge some gaps and build up some trust.”

When Carbone was found dead Nov. 10, it came at the end of a 33-day surge in homicides in the city during what was an extraordinary drop in killings during the first nine-plus months of the year.

There were nine homicides in the city through Oct. 8. But the deaths of George Westhead, 63, Oct. 8; the death of Samuel Rodriguez-Hernandez, 39, Oct. 19; the death of Kenny Stanton, 40, Nov. 9; and the death of Nicole Carbone, 37, Nov. 10, were a reminder of how quickly violence can spike in the city.

By this date in 2025, Youngstown had recorded five homicides.