YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — Police said information obtained from a search warrant helped them to arrest a suspect in a shooting death at a South Avenue gas station.
Samuel Byrd, 68, was booked late Friday into the Mahoning County Jail on a charge of murder. He is accused of the Wednesday shooting death of Keimone Black, 29, who was shot and killed about 3 a.m. at the Shell Station at South and Samuel avenues.
He was arraigned Tuesday in Youngstown Municipal Court. Bond was set at $1 million.
Lt. Mohammad Awad of the Detective Bureau said he could not comment yet on a motive.
A release from the department said officers served a search warrant Friday at an address in the 800 block of East Avondale Avenue. Police have taken several gunfire calls at that address this year.
Prosecutors said there was evidence that Byrd was going back to the D.C. area just before he was caught.
Detectives then tracked Byrd to the Boardman Inn in Boardman, where he was arrested with help from Boardman police, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Mahoning Valley Crisis Response Team and the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force.
Police said Black was in an SUV at a gas pump when a man walked up to one of the doors and fired several shots inside. He fell out of the SUV and died later at St. Elizabeth Health Center.
A passenger in the SUV was not injured.
Byrd is no stranger to law enforcement. He has a criminal record dating back to at least 1978 in Washington, D.C., for weapons charges.
Court records show in 1981, Byrd and two others were convicted of murdering a gas station attendant a year earlier during an armed robbery at a gas station in Washington, DC.
He was arrested but managed to escape from custody at the District of Columbia jail twice within two weeks. He was convicted of the murder charge and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
Court records show the escape charges were dropped and he was released from prison in 2017.
Gerry Ricciutti contributed to this story.
