City seeks clues in yet another slaying

Remnants of crime scene tape mark the location in an alley in the 1200 block of Woodstock Avenue near Dorr Street where Shaun Flowers, 22, was shot to death on Wednesday.

THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT
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Remnants of crime scene tape mark the location in an alley in the 1200 block of Woodstock Avenue near Dorr Street where Shaun Flowers, 22, was shot to death on Wednesday.

Possible witness

Teresa Jones of Toledo thought someone had slammed a Dumpster lid too hard and did not give it a second thought until she learned later from a relative that a man had been shot a half-block down the street from her West Toledo home.

“I’ve lived here for seven years. There’ve been shootings. But it’s the first time that I know that somebody was killed,” Ms. Jones, 56, said Thursday of the Wednesday night shooting.

“I hate to say it, but it’s something you have to deal with every day.

“I really don’t know where I would move to. I have nowhere else to go. This is my house. This is my home,” she said.

Shaun Flowers, 22, who was shot multiple times, was pronounced dead at the scene, in an alley in the 1200 block of Woodstock Avenue, near Dorr Street and Parkside Boulevard. The shooting occurred about 10 p.m.

On Thursday, police asked the public for help identifying a man they say is a possible witness to the homicide. Police posted his photo on the TPD Facebook page.

Sgt. Joe Heffernan said the man in the picture was at Stef’s Comboz, 2051 Dorr St., about the time of the shooting, which occurred just around the corner.

The man in the picture is wearing a white T-shirt, with “R.I.P.” printed on the front and someone’s photo underneath.

David Seephan, a clerk at the carryout, said he heard two gunshots soon after the store closed and later saw police stop by and get a security camera footage with an image of a man to whom he had sold a cigar.

Mr. Seephan, 31, said the man in the picture came in between 9:30 and 10 p.m., bought a cigar, and left. Then, about a half-hour later, Mr. Seephan said, he heard two gunshots.

Information about the victim was scarce. Police did not release his address. A search of the Lucas County birth records revealed that he was born Dec. 17, 1990, in Toledo. His mother was listed as Earnestine Flowers of Toledo. She could not be reached for comment.

Police did not say whether the shooting was gang-related or whether retaliation was the motive.

The homicide scene is near territory claimed by the gang known as the Southside Folk “front yard.”

The homicide is the second in two days in the city and the 24th of the year in Toledo. The shooting death on Tuesday at Elm and East Bancroft Streets of Andrew J. Anderson, 31, was the 23rd homicide this year in Toledo.

Anyone with information on the latest shooting is asked to call the Toledo Police Investigative Services Section at 419-245-3142 or Crime Stopper at 419-255-1111.

Contact Mike Sigov at: sigov@theblade.com, 419-724-6089, or on Twitter @mikesigovblade.