YOUNGSTOWN - Police Chief Rod Foley said police do have a suspect in the city's latest homicide and hope to issue a warrant before the end of the week.
Dion Weatherspoon, 24, 310 Hilton Ave., was shot to death in a driveway at 346 Hilton Ave. about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. His death is the city's 15th homicide of the year.
Foley said detectives know who they are looking for and the person was arguing with Weatherspoon before shots were fired. Reports state Weatherspoon was hit six times with bullets, and officers found at least a dozen spent shell casings in an adjacent front yard.
''It appears he (Weatherspoon) definitely knew the people involved,'' Foley said.
Weatherspoon was acquitted of murder in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in January of 2009. He had been accused of the murder of William Burr, who was shot several times and found lying in the doorway of a South Avenue pizza shop in July of 2007.
Burr was a witness to the murder of his brother, Anthony Perez, in December of 2006. He was gunned down while he was fixing a car in the driveway of a South Side home.
Foley said that while he hopes an arrest can be made soon, he is a little disturbed that someone would shoot someone else outside in broad daylight.
''We feel confident in our investigation, but it's certainly disconcerting that at 11:30 in the morning, the street erupts with gunfire,'' Foley said.
Hilton Avenue is known as the home base of the H Block gang, and Foley said Weatherspoon was tied in with the gang, but it appears his murder is not related to gang activity at all.
About 1:20 p.m. Wednesday, police were back on Hilton Avenue when a woman was stabbed after getting in a fight with a group of women at 258 Hilton Ave. Reports state the victim in the stabbing, 19-year-old Victoria Truman had a relationship with Weatherspoon and that one of the attackers had a child with Weatherspoon.
Foley said Weatherspoon and the person who killed him may have been arguing over a woman.