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Detectives investigate city shooting death

Joquan Lamar Hall, 18, identified as victim; police seeking information

WARREN — Police detectives are investigating the shooting death of a man found with multiple wounds lying in the middle of Olian Avenue NW shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday.

The man, identified by police as 18-year-old Joquan Lamar Hall, 18, of Belvedere Avenue SE, died later after he was taken to Trumbull Regional Medical Center, according to Warren police.

At a news conference Wednesday, Capt. Robert Massucci, chief of detectives, said the department received a lot of cooperation from witnesses and neighbors. He said the residents are fearing for their safety.

“This is a typically quiet neighborhood,” Massucci said.

Two persons of interest have been identified by police, and Massucci said one has been questioned.

A Trumbull County 911 report states three calls were taken about the shooting — two by neighbors in the Elm Hill Drive / Olian area who reported hearing gunshots and seeing the man lying in the street being attended to by another man.

A third caller to 911 identified himself as the 19-year-old friend of the victim.

Massucci said detectives are sifting through the security cameras at the neighboring homes.

“One witnesses’ camera did not pick up what she saw during the shooting,” Massucci said.

The victim’s friend told 911 dispatchers that he saw shots coming from a black four-door Jeep-type vehicle, perhaps a Renegade, that drove toward nearby Burbank Park.

“He’s still breathing. He’s been shot multiple times,” the witness told dispatchers — noting the victim was bleeding from the head.

Reports state four or five shots were fired. Police checked the park for the suspected vehicle but did not find anything, the 911 report states. Massucci said that vehicle later was located by police.

The Trumbull County coroner’s report is expected to make a ruling on the death after an autopsy is conducted.

Mayor Doug Franklin said he is encouraged by the public’s cooperation and said the city’s public safety forces rise to a new level when witnesses are willing to talk.

“We have all hands on deck to solve this crime,” Franklin said. “We want to send a message that we take this gun violence very seriously.”

The slaying is the second homicide in the city for 2023. The first was the fatal fire that was ruled an arson last week and killed a 16-year-old Warren G. Harding High School junior girl.

Police handled several recent crime calls in the Burbank Park area, including a fight among teenagers. Massucci said these incidents may be related to the shooting death.

“It is apparent that this victim was targeted,” the detective said.

In a recent police report, a 22-year-old Farrell, Pa., man told police he was robbed at gunpoint as he drove his car near Elm Hill Drive and Olian Avenue NW. The report didn’t give a time when this robbery occurred, but it was reported on Jan. 17.

The man said he was coming back from Cleveland and his GPS took him through Warren. While stopped at the intersection, the report states, a man came up to the car asking if he was lost. The man then pulled a gun at him, ordering to give him everything he has. The gunman was accompanied by four other men, the report states, who took a Taurus 9mm handgun, an iPhone XS and his wallet that contained the man’s identification and a bank card, the report states.

Police also were investigating a carjacking in the Burbank Park area.

The shooting occurred just hours after Warren City Council heard about plans to use $6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to make improvements to all city parks, including Burbank Park.

Warren police request anyone who may have information about the deadly shooting on Olian Avenue NW to call detective Frank Tempesta at 330-841-2651 or email at ftempesta@warren.org.

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