WARREN - Detectives are trying to determine what connection a masked armed robbery has to the city's second homicide that occurred less than 100 feet from each other.
A woman called police about 1 a.m. Monday and said she walked inside her home and found four masked men, all with guns, wearing hooded sweatshirts. The males tried to drag the woman into the house, according to police scanner traffic, but she broke away and ran down Warren Boulevard to Laird Avenue, where she called police. The men took her keys, reports said.
The group went to the house at 341 Charles Ave. S.E. that sits directly in front of it, and fired at least 11 shots, one of which killed Deshawn Scott, also identified in records as Dshawn Scott, 36.
Scott was living at the home but was born in Detroit and had a Taylor, Mich., address in 2009, according to jail records.
Police still are looking for the four masked men, said police spokesman Sgt. Jeff Cole. Cole said Monday that they had no leads or suspects but were interviewing witnesses.
Cole said police were unsure of the motive or if anything was stolen in the home invasion.
"We're following up to see if they're related," Cole said. "We're still trying to gather facts that will lead us to arrests."
James Wolfgang, a homeless man who lives in a tent between the two houses, said he thought he heard about a dozen gunshots and footsteps.
He said he heard a woman's voice yell, "Oh my God," and then heard the shots. Wolfgang said they used the woman to lure Scott out of the home.
Cole said Scott was likely killed on the front porch, but that they are still gathering details.
About five people were talking with police on the front porch of 341 Charles St. When reporters arrived, they scattered and refused to answer questions or their doors. Eleven bullet holes, numbered by police, were marked on the front door of 341 Charles St. S.E.
Two small children live in a home across the street from the shooting.
Scott had no local court record. He was booked into the Trumbull County Jail on June 16, 2009, on a falsification charge by Warren police. No report exists of the arrest and charges were never filed.
Police have been called to the home only sparingly throughout the last two years, never for Scott.
Records said the last time officers were called to the home, on March 3, 2011, Animal Control Officer John Onatz was dispatched to the home to put down an abandoned and vicious dog following an eviction.