Thorsten “Bo” Martin was a 52-year-old male from Mentor, Ohio. In the early morning hours of November 22, 2025, he was working security outside Johnny Gringos, a downtown restaurant and bar on Chester Street in Painesville, when a confrontation unfolded that would end his life. Around 3:30 a.m., Painesville police and fire crews responded to reports of a man shot outside the business and found Martin suffering from a gunshot wound.
First responders attempted life-saving measures at the scene and rushed him to University Hospitals Lake West Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
According to investigators and multiple local reports, Martin had been involved in a verbal dispute with a 28-year-old man outside the restaurant shortly before the shooting. That argument allegedly escalated into a physical altercation, during which the younger man is accused of pulling out a firearm and firing a single shot that struck Martin. Witnesses at the scene intervened quickly; bystanders wrestled the gun away from the alleged shooter and held him on the ground until officers arrived, preventing any further violence.
Martin’s death was immediately treated as a homicide. He was widely known in the community not only as a security guard that night but also as a local business owner and landscaper. Friends and colleagues described him as a man with a “great heart” who would “do anything for you,” someone who worked a regular job during the day and spent his evenings helping friends or supporting local businesses. He owned a landscaping and snowplowing company called “Yes We Can” and was closely connected with Lux Auto Spa and Detail Shop in Mentor, where the owner publicly remembered him as generous, dependable, and deeply caring. In the days after the shooting, mourners created a small memorial outside Johnny Gringos, leaving candles, balloons, food items and handwritten tributes, including a sign reading “Rest in Peace, Bo,” reflecting the depth of the community’s grief.
Police quickly identified and arrested the alleged shooter, 28-year-old Dylan Hayden Stalnaker of Painesville Township. After the struggle with bystanders, Stalnaker was treated at a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and then booked into the Lake County Jail. He has been charged with murder in connection with Martin’s death and is being held without bond. At an arraignment in Painesville Municipal Court on November 24, 2025, Stalnaker pleaded not guilty, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for December 1, 2025. Authorities have said that the investigation is ongoing and have asked anyone with additional information about the confrontation or the shooting to contact the Painesville Police Department or its tip line, underscoring that, while an arrest has been made, the full circumstances of the incident are still being pieced together.
