YOUNGSTOWN - A man who recently completed a three-year prison sentence for manslaughter was shot to death in a parking lot Thursday evening.
William Robert Floyd, 23, was killed in his car in the parking of the Red & White store at 1721 Landsdowne Blvd. on the far East Side about 9:20 p.m. Thursday.
His death is the third homicide of the year in Youngstown.
A witness told police he saw a man come out of a yard next to the store as Floyd was starting his car, walk up to the driver's window, fire several shots point blank at the window and then run back the way he had came.
Officers found Floyd slumped over dead in the car. Police Chief Rod Foley said officers checked the area where the gunman was spotted coming out but did not find any evidence there.
Floyd was recently released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for a 2008 homicide. He pleaded guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Sirtan Alli, 19, who was killed on McGuffey Road near Stewart Avenue.
Another man pleaded guilty to Floyd's death and is serving a seven-year prison term.
The market is the same location of a December shootout that was spawned by the disappearance of 26-year-old David Allen Jackson. Jackson's fate was unknown until his skull was found Feb. 16 in a heavily wooded area off Vaughn Street. Police are treating his death as a homicide.
Foley said investigators do not at this time believe that Jackson's death is related to Floyd's disappearance. He said there are no suspects.
The only clue detectives have to go on is that it appeared as if Floyd's shooting was not random, Foley said.
''We're working on the theory this wasn't a random act of violence,'' Foley said. ''Someone assassinated him for a reason.''
There were 26 homicides in Youngstown last year.