YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — It must’ve been a large crime scene the night in January 2001 Terril Mitchum was killed.
Mitchum, 18, was one of 34 homicide victims in Youngstown that year. His case is unsolved.
He was killed in a shooting in the 100 block of Kenmore Avenue that wounded two other people who were inside a house, playing cards.
The Vindicator at the time said witnesses told police that they were playing cards around 2:25 a.m. when someone heard a knock on the door.
When the knock was answered, someone forced their way inside and began firing. Two men who were playing, one 26 and the other 23, were wounded.
The 26-year-old told police he ran out of the house and down the street, but someone chased him down and shot him. He went to a nearby house for help, according to the newspaper.
Mitchum’s body was found in the snow in a nearby yard in the 100 block of Kenmore, the newspaper said.
Officers found casings from 9mm and .45-caliber handguns in the street. Accounts at the time described the incident as a “shootout.”
In 2001, Youngstown was still gripped in the throes of the violence that erupted in the 90s when almost 500 people were killed, an average of 49.2 homicide victims per year.
Homicide rates in the city, however, were beginning to level off, as Youngstown averaged 32 homicides per year from 199-2002, before falling under 20 in 2003 with 19 homicides.
This story is part of a series of cold cases that WKBN is examining.
Do you have a cold case that you’d like us to look into further? Submit a cold case to WKBN.
Anyone with information on the Jan. 12, 2001, murder of Terril Mitchum or any of the other people on the list below can call the Youngstown Police Department Detective Bureau at 330-742-8911 or CrimeStoppers Youngstown at 330-746-CLUE. Anyone who knows one of the victims and would like to speak to a reporter can email contact information to joseph.gorman@wkbn.com
UNSOLVED 2001 HOMICIDES:
Jan. 12: Terril Mitchum, 18, of Columbus, is found shot to death a short distance from a home in the 100 block of Kenmore Avenue in a shootout that wounded two other men.
Jan. 22: Margaret Simons, 22 and Antoine Barnett, 27, are found shot to death in a car parked in the drive of a vacant 1350 Berwick Ave. home.
March 9: Thomas Hawk, 65, is found shot in the head near a payphone outside a 718 Belmont Ave. store.
March 31: Ernestine Fears, 50, is found dead in the road at Cantwell and Carson on the East Side. There are tire tracks on her body.
May 2: James Robinson, 24, is shot to death in a car he was riding in on Logan Avenue.
June 4: Clint Wright, 42, is found shot in the head at a business on Kenmore Avenue where he was a janitor.
June 17: Jerome Williams, 20, is shot to death as he walked in the middle of Hylda Avenue.
July 21: Alphonso James, 41, is found with gunshot wounds to the head at Lansdowne and Arch in a wooded area on the East Side.
Aug. 23: Vaschon May, 24, is found shot to death in the woods behind a home in the 1000 block of Erie Street.
Aug. 26: Jonathan McClendon, 23, is killed in a drive-by shooting at Hudson and West Princeton.
Aug. 28: Anthony Bailey, 23, runs into a McGuffey Road bar and dies after being shot several times on Miami Avenue.
Sept. 28: Scottie Hornbuckle, 22, is found shot to death in his Parkview Avenue home.
Sept. 30: Terrence L. Green, 30, is found shot to death outside the former Uptown Theater on Market Street
Oct. 31: Hyland Burton, 23, is shot several times at a home in the 100 block of Tod Lane.
Nov. 1: Michael J. Green, 52, is found shot to death in the drive of a home in the 1700 block of Rosedale Avenue after being shot on Cohasset Drive.
Nov. 28: Ollie Hightower, 53, is shot in the head in his Sycamore Avenue home.
Dec. 17: Daniel Harris, 46, dies after being shot as he drives past the Party Pantry on Glenwood Avenue.
Dec. 23: Levon Hill, 49, is shot to death in his South Avenue apartment. Kent police find his vehicle two days later.