YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — Chuck Doran’s brother, Tim, had a great job and a wonderful family.
Then, Tim’s wife died and he spiraled into a crack cocaine addiction.
It was rough to watch, Chuck said by phone recently, and at one point, he was warning his mother not to give in to Tim’s requests for help because he would usually turn around and use whatever she gave him to help feed his addiction.
Chuck was hopeful that perhaps Tim, a Girard High School graduate, would be prodded into getting some help if he was shunned.
“I thought this would end with me going to a hospital and having to identify his body,” Chuck said.
Unfortunately, Chuck was prophetic; Tim, 43, was shot and killed Oct. 20, 2004, on Dupont Street on the North Side where he went with another man to buy drugs.
His case is unsolved.
“They called me,” Chuck said of the aftermath of his brother’s death. “I had to go to Northside Hospital and identify him.”
“It was just a really bad time.”
According to newspaper accounts at the time, Tim and another man were on Dupont Street, which is in the Brier Hill projects, to buy drugs about 9:30 p.m.
When the car the men were in pulled into a drive, it was swarmed by about 10 men after they got out of the car. They managed to make it back into the car before someone fired several shots.
Tim had a gunshot wound to the head. He was driven to Northside Hospital by the man who was with him, where he died from his wounds.
Police found three 9mm shell casings at the scene but not much else.
Chuck said his brother was killed in a case of mistaken identity. The lead detective on the case, now retired Detective Sgt. Ron Rodway, said on the phone from Florida the Brier Hill projects at the time were a dangerous place to be if you were looking to score drugs.
“It’s just tragic that someone would be so addicted that they would put their life in danger to get their drugs,” Rodway said.
Chuck said his brother was not always the person that his addiction turned him into. He said Tim was a “super guy who would pretty much do anything for anybody.”
But things changed for the worse after Tim’s wife passed away.
“Once his wife died, he really went off the edge,” Chuck said of his brother. “It was just a downward spiral from then on.”
His brother had a good-paying job as a foreman at the former Youngstown Tool & Die, where he worked for over 20 years, but he lost that job because of his addiction, Chuck said.
When Tim would ask for things from their mother, he would always couch his request for help with the caveat of “one more time,” Chuck said.
Chuck said he tried to explain to their mother that by “helping” Tim, she was actually making his addiction worse.
“I told her to consider him dead already and maybe we would get him back,” Chuck said.
It’s been almost 20 years since his brother died, Chuck said.
“Obviously, we all miss him,” Chuck said.
Chuck also had a final word of advice for the courts; addicts should address schools as part of their sentences. He said perhaps their bare bones rehashing of their addictions can steer young people away from drugs, from seeking that one high that turns into an almost lifelong quest for others.
“Maybe, they need to go back to the schools,” he said.
Anyone with information on the Oct. 20, 2004, murder of Timothy Doran, 43, or any of the murders below, can call the Youngstown Police Department Detective Bureau at 330-742-8911 or CrimeStoppers Youngstown at 330-746-CLUE. If anyone is a friend or relative of someone who was murdered between 2001 and 2023 and would like to speak to a reporter please email your contact information to joseph.gorman.com.
UNSOLVED HOMICIDES FROM 2004
Jan. 15: David Johns, 22, Danyale Oliver, 20 and Nicole Scott, 27, all found shot to death in a house on New York Avenue over drugs. Scott had a bag packed like she was going on a trip before she was killed.
March 12: Christopher Hodge, 28, found shot to death in his Almyra Avenue home.
April 26: David Greer, 33, who had been reported missing, is found in McKelvey Lake.
May 4: Henry Blue, 37 and Tywan Tillis, 29, are found shot to death inside a car on Overland Avenue.
Aug. 17: Roberto Rodriguez Lozano, 26, killed in a drive-by shooting on North Truesdale after being shot Aug. 17.
Aug. 25: Raoul Elliot, 35, found shot several times on Foster Street.
Oct. 20: Timothy Doran, 43, found shot in the head in his car on Dupont Street.
Nov. 28: James Rozenblad Jr., 23, shot inside his home on North Bruce Street.
Dec. 5: Jerome Miller, 31, shot inside a car at Gina’s Drive-Through on North Garland.
Dec. 18: Benedict Santana, 36, found shot to death in his home on Nielson Avenue.
Dec. 24: Raymond L. Ford, 23, found shot in the head in a home on Rosedale Avenue.
