Warren convenience store boarded up following recent homicide - WFMJ.com News weather sports for Youngstown-Warren Ohio

 

A convenience store in Warren has been boarded up following a homicide over the weekend.

Warren Safety Services Director Eddie Colbert tells 21 News the Convenient Food Mart on Elm Road NE has been boarded up after a temporary restraining order (TRO) was granted for the building.

Colbert says that order was granted shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday morning.

This comes after a shooting outside of the store early Sunday morning that claimed the life of 31-year-old David Lee Owens III and injured another.

Warren officials held a press conference on Tuesday, where they announced plans to shut down the store, stating that the building had been a nuisance for years. City Law Director Enzo Cantalamessa echoed that statement, saying the selling of alcohol after hours and allowing people to congregate at the establishment through the early hours of the morning were all factors leading up to the latest homicide.

"Some of whom were brandishing firearms; there was a dice game going on there at the time," said Cantalamessa. A cocktail of ingredients that turned deadly.

"We've seen nothing to this point to suggest that anything short of closing and boarding it up is going to abate this nuisance," Cantalamessa explained.

Last year, the store agreed with the city to close between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on weekends and not to sell alcohol after 2 a.m. Warren City Prosecutor Traci Timko said there was "clear evidence" that the store had broken that agreement.

"There was a problem; the problem created a very dangerous, deadly situation that they directly contributed to by being open and illegally serving alcohol past the allowable times under state law," Cantalamessa reiterated. 

Warren Law Director Enzo Cantalamessa tells 21 News a hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday, August 20 in the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. That's where the city will present its case that the store should remain closed for a longer period of time.

October 1 marks the renewal for liquor licenses in Ohio. Warren City Council plans to object to the renewal of the establishment's liquor license.

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