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Police identify 62-year-old killed after argument at west side gas station.
By Carl Chancellor
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Jul 05, 2008
The Summit County Medical Examiner's office has identified the victim in a gas station shooting Friday on Akron's near west side.
Robert Smith, 62, of Silver Street, was gunned down in the parking lot of the Circle K at 440 West Market St. He was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 11:30 a.m. Friday.
Akron police have identified Courtland J. Wright, 27, of Akron as a suspect. A warrant for aggravated murder has been issued. Wright is a black male, 5-foot-11, and weighs about 190 pounds.
Police are asking anyone with information on Wright's whereabouts is asked to contact the department at 330-375-2181. Wright should be considered armed and dangerous.
Wright was identified as a suspect from photographs taken by the gas station's security camera.
Police received a 911 call at 11:07 a.m. Friday about a shooting at the Circle K gas station, 440 W. Market St., near Oakdale Avenue.
Police Lt. Rick Edwards said Smith was found sprawled and unresponsive on the ground near the gas pumps.
''There was some sort of altercation and several shots were fired,'' Edwards said. He said it appeared that the victim was shot at least once in the head.
According to an eyewitness recorded on a 911 call, the shooter was wearing a light blue T-shirt and black shorts.
He ran from the scene east down Market Street and cut through the McDonald's parking lot immediately after the shooting.
Edwards said witnesses indicated that the shooter had emerged from the store and confronted the victim in the parking lot. Words were exchanged and multiple shots were fired.
It isn't clear whether both men had guns and fired at one another. However, one of the two callers on the 911 tape said, ''Oh, my god, somebody is shot in the parking lot of the gas station. . . . I heard the gunshot and he's laying here in the parking lot. He's got a gun beside him.''
When police arrived about three minutes after the 911 call, the victim was dead, Edwards said.
''There is no motive at this time,'' Edwards said.
Police and investigators with the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office declined to identify the victim Friday night, pending notification of his family.
The Summit County Medical Examiner's Office will do an autopsy this morning.
Edwards said the suspect was photographed inside the store by the station's security cameras just before the shooting.
Wright has a record for drug possession and unlawful possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to one year in prison on the weapons charge in 2005.
The shooting scene
Friday afternoon, onlookers stood behind the plastic yellow police tape after the shooting and stared at a pool of blood near pump No. 1.
Officers dug for bullets that may have been lodged in one of beams supporting the canopy over the pump area. Police also searched a plastic waste container near the gas pump.
About 1 p.m., a firetruck pulled in front of the station. Two firemen with a hose ducked under the yellow tape and sprayed down the drying blood. In less than five minutes, the only remaining evidence of the violence that had played out just two hours earlier vanished in a stream of dirty water down a sewer grate.
Includes reporting by staff writer David Giffels. Carl Chancellor can be reached at 330-996-3725 or cchancellor@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Summit County Medical Examiner's office has identified the victim in a gas station shooting Friday on Akron's near west side.
Get the full article here.
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