Kenny Stanton, a 40-year-old man from Youngstown, Ohio, was shot during a late-night visit to a South Side convenience store and died from his wounds after being rushed to the hospital. On Sunday night, November 9, 2025, police were called just before 11 p.m. to Sami Quick Stop at the intersection of Market Street and Midlothian Boulevard, where a burst of gunfire had shattered the routine of the neighborhood. Officers arriving at 10:46 p.m.
found a chaotic scene: one man lying on the sidewalk outside the store and another inside, both suffering from gunshot wounds. Stanton was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where he later died, turning what began as a double shooting into yet another homicide for a city that has struggled with gun violence.
According to police reports, Stanton and the second victim were both struck by at least one bullet, though the man inside the store was hit multiple times. Investigators blocked off the area along Market Street while crime-lab personnel and detectives combed through the scene in the dark, documenting shell casings, mapping the positions of the wounded men, and searching for any clues that might explain how and why the confrontation erupted. Both victims were transported by ambulance to St. Elizabeth, where doctors fought to stabilize them; one was initially listed in critical condition while the other was in more stable shape. Stanton’s condition worsened, however, and his death was later confirmed by the Youngstown Police Department, making his case the city’s tenth homicide of the year.
The shooting at Sami Quick Stop did not happen in isolation. It came in a year when Youngstown was already reeling from a string of killings, including the early-September death of 22-year-old Ahlycia Brown in what police described as a domestic homicide elsewhere in the city. Her killing had led to a murder charge against her girlfriend, underscoring how different forms of violence were converging on the same community. Stanton’s death added another name to that grim tally, this time tied to a public place many residents rely on for everyday errands, deepening the sense that danger could surface in the most ordinary settings.
Even as the community processed the news, formal answers remained scarce. Youngstown police confirmed that detectives were actively investigating the case but did not publicly describe a motive, what sparked the gunfire, or whether the shooting was targeted or random. Local news outlets reported that authorities had not released the identity or condition of the second man who was wounded and, critically, had not named any suspect or person of interest. As of mid-November 2025, no arrests had been announced and police had provided no details suggesting that a shooter was in custody, leaving the case open and the public to wait for developments that had yet to come.
Online, Stanton’s name soon appeared on a national gun violence memorial, listed among the people “lost to gun violence” on November 9, 2025, in Youngstown. There, visitors began lighting virtual candles in his memory, a small, flickering testament to a life cut short and a reminder that he was more than a statistic in a crime report. His entry sits alongside other victims from the city and across Ohio, each one a separate story of loss connected by the same thread of gunfire. For now, the record of his final night is stark and incomplete: a trip to a neighborhood store, shots on Market Street, a desperate ride to the hospital, and an investigation still searching for whoever pulled the trigger.
