AUSTINTOWN — Police have released video of a May 13 shooting that suggests it was an act of self-defense.

In a news release issued Tuesday, Austintown police Chief Valorie Delmont states that no charges are pending at this time against the man who shot Zachary T. Fisher, 30, of Austintown, in a domestic road rage incident near a New Road car wash.

Delmont reiterated that Wednesday, adding that it was important for the public to understand the full story.

“We just wanted the correct story to be out there, as far as letting people know this was not random road rage that led to a shooting,” she said. “This was two people in a relationship with a history. It was a bad situation and it just got worse. But it wasn’t random and it wasn’t the result of a car accident. There was more that led up to that.”

Delmont described in detail the two video cuts that her detectives collected from the car wash and another nearby business.

She said Fisher and the woman in the car he was chasing were involved and had a child together, who was in the car with her, her boyfriend and another child.

“So he chases her down. When he tries to go in front of her and cut her off, he loses control of this truck and wrecks. He does not hit her vehicle, just wrecks. She pulls in to check on him. He jumps out of the truck. He pulls a gun from his back pocket, he racks the slide and charges her vehicle. There’s an altercation over here between the two of them,” she explained.

The video shows Fisher chasing the woman and fighting with her.

He then approaches the passenger side of the vehicle and begins fighting with the man in the passenger seat. All this occurs with two children in the back seat of the car.

Delmont said there was a gun in the car and the other man used it to defend himself and the children, shooting Fisher from inside the car, then immediately getting out.

“He walks around the car for a minute, kind of realizing what just happened. She calls 911, and he goes over and performs CPR on (Fisher),” Delmont said.

The police report states that Fisher was transported to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where he died of the gunshot wound shortly thereafter.

Delmont said the incident may have stemmed from a failed custody exchange with Fisher, after the woman realized that showing up with the other man in the car was a bad idea. But Fisher saw her vehicle and chased her down.

She said the case is still somewhat under investigation.

“We sent ballistic evidence to BCI. When we get all that back, we’ll sit down with the prosecutor’s office again, and our detectives, and review everything and reevaluate whether any charges need to be filed at that time,” she said. “We brought them up here, and it took a while to get the stories out of them and to get that surveillance video to corroborate what they were saying. At the point of our initial consultation with the prosecutor’s office, they’re claiming self-defense, and surveillance video clearly shows evidence of aggressive behavior on the part of Fisher.”

While Fisher does not appear to have a violent past on paper, court records do show a pattern of behavior consistent with the story Delmont laid out.

In September of 2017, he pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Austintown Court to disorderly conduct, a charge reduced from criminal damaging or endangering.

In March, Fisher pleaded guilty to driving under suspension. His license was suspended for failure to pay child support. He had pleaded guilty to the same thing in April 2025, as well as speeding and texting while driving.

Records also show that in February 2018, Fisher was charged in Boardman with Identity fraud and receiving stolen property, fifth-degree felonies, and misuse of a credit card, a first-degree misdemeanor.

That case was bound over in June of that year to a Mahoning County grand jury, which indicted him on all three charges. In March 2019, he pleaded guilty to the identity fraud charge, and the other two counts were dismissed. Fisher was sentenced to 18 months probation.