Erie Times-News | By Tim Hahn
Flowers wrapped in plastic and a small teddy bear made up a makeshift shrine on the northeast corner of East 19th and Ash streets Friday afternoon. Below it was a partially deflated mylar balloon with the words "Happy Birthday" on it.
On the southwest corner of the intersection, a handwritten sign on the front door of a large house warned people not to loiter on the concrete front steps.
Erie police believe that a gunshot fired from somewhere west of the intersection struck a 25-year-old city man early Friday morning, sending him to the hospital, where he later died.
Erie police identified the victim as Teverous J. Williams, of 411 E. 21st St.
He died while undergoing surgery to his midsection at UPMC Hamot, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said.
An autopsy was performed late Friday afternoon, but the results were not immediately released.
Police offered few details Friday about the shooting that was first reported at 2:11 a.m. by a woman who told a 911 operator that she heard a gunshot. A similar call was also received as police officers went to East 19th and Ash streets to investigate, Erie police Deputy Chief Randy Bowers said.
Another 911 call was placed a short time later by a man who said he was driving a gunshot victim to UPMC Hamot, Bowers said.
Police characterized that man as a "good samaritan" who was coming home when he encountered the wounded Williams.
The driver was at the hospital when police arrived there, and he was interviewed.
Erie police detectives and patrol officers returned to the area at daybreak. Patrol officers scoured East 19th Street for shell casings and other evidence to indicate where the shooting took place, while detectives knocked on doors and questioned residents about what they might have seen or heard.
The people who reported hearing the shot or shots being fired said they appeared to be coming from west of the Ash Street intersection, Erie Police Chief Steve Franklin said.
Detectives at the scene Friday morning said the people they questioned did not report hearing anything.
One woman, who lives in a house at the intersection, said she went to bed shortly after 1 a.m. and did not hear gunshots or see any lights indicating that the police had arrived.
"That's what's so weird about the situation," said the woman, who did not give her name.
If the death is ruled a homicide, it will be Erie's fifth this year and the fourth involving a gun. There were six homicides in the city in 2011, three of which involved a gun.
Two of Erie's gun-related homicides over the past year remain unsolved.
Police have not charged anyone in the Nov. 21 shooting death of 31-year-old Shanti Bayete in the 1800 block of Walnut Street. Also unsolved is the April 14 shooting death of 42-year-old Nelson Irizarry-Reyes in the 200 block of West 19th Street.
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