Three shot in city’s downtown

Jun 6, 2023

LEFT: A screenshot from surveillance footage in the South Street plaza shows a person wearing a black ski mask, black shirt and red-and-black pants heading toward the shooting. Later in the footage, the unidentified person runs from the shooting.

WARREN — Police arrived at the scene of a downtown plaza Sunday evening where they thought a fight was occurring but instead found three people — two of them teens — had been shot, according to a police report.

The shootings happened around 8:30 p.m. in the area of the former Burger King restaurant near Main Avenue SW and South Street SW.

Victims included Ghian Mills, 19, who reports state suffered a major injury thought to be either a broken bone or an internal injury. Two juvenile boys, a 17-year-old and 16-year-old, also suffered similar injuries in the shooting.

Surveillance footage from a store inside the plaza showed a portion of the events that unfolded.

At one point during the video, a person wearing a black shirt, red-and-black pants and a black ski mask ran toward the northeast end of the plaza with his hands on his waistband.

A witness that showed the footage pointed out that in one frame, a family, including three children, could be seen ducking gunshots next to a white vehicle that was hit by a bullet in the parking spot next to them.

Early Monday morning, the aftermath of the shooting left dried blood along the plaza walkway and a bullet broke the glass of one of the businesses.

Robert Davis, president of the African American Achievers Association Festival, which was taking place nearby on Courthouse Square, said that after hearing about the shooting, he and Warren Safety Service Director Eddie Colbert decided to close the festival early.

"We wanted to ensure the violence didn't spill over into the festival," Davis said.

The festival was set to run until 10 p.m. but was shut down just after the shooting around 8:30 p.m.

"When we put on this event, our mission is to promote brotherhood and lessen tension — that's what these three days mean for the African American community, to bring people together," Davis said.

"The organization's heart and prayers go out to the family of the victims. We need to continue to inspire and motivate our youth to give them more opportunities, and it doesn't come by one entity — it takes the entire community."

Davis said the next AAAA meeting, which occurs regularly following the festival, will involve talks about how to make the event better and work more with the community.

As a father and husband, the situation hits close to home for Colbert, who attended the festival this past weekend with his family. He called the news "beyond disappointing" and said it was "hurtful" to hear the news. Colbert said there needs to be a comprehensive approach to addressing future instances of violence that involves the parents, schools and programs for youth, among other preventative efforts.

Warren police on Sunday requested help from the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office to secure the crime scene. Howland police also assisted.

Another shooting is being investigated from Sunday involving an adult male and a teen boy who were reportedly shot just a few hours prior to the plaza shooting. That shooting occurred in the 500 block of Southern Boulevard around 6 p.m.

The two victims, a 16-year-old boy and Elijah Turner, 18, ended up at Trumbull Regional Medical Center suffering from gunshot wounds, the report states. A witness told police that two men were shooting.

Several shell casings were collected from the scene. The shooting, along with the one that occurred hours later in the area of downtown Warren, are under investigation but it's unclear whether the two shootings were related.

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