Published: November 10, 2009 07:52 pm      

SHOOTING: Victim may lead cops to killer

Investigation continuing into Saturday night slaying of Buffalo man

Before he died, Jacobi Lovett may have provided police with the evidence they’ll need to catch his killer.

As Lovett lay in a pool of blood in front of a Main Street mini-mart he told officers he’d been shot by a lone gunman and had left his car in the 900 block of Niagara Avenue.

“He had a brief conversation with an officer and he said someone had jumped in his car and he was shot,” Falls Detective Capt. Ernest Palmer said. “He said his car was up the street and it was a green Jag.”

Officers later recovered Lovett’s green Jaguar, in the shadow of police headquarters, hidden behind a vacant home in the 1000 block of Cleveland Avenue. The discovery has yielded a key piece of evidence.

“We believe the shooting took place inside the vehicle,” Palmer said. “We recovered a shell casing from the driver’s-side front seat.”

The casing and other forensic evidence is now being analyzed, Palmer said.

Officers responding to a report of shots fired at 1:15 a.m. Saturday found Lovett lying on the ground in front of the mini-mart at the corner of Niagara Avenue and Main Street. Lovett’s pants were soaked with blood and large amounts of blood were visible on the sidewalk, the door to the mini-mart and on the floor inside the store.

Lovett reportedly told officers his attacker was a black male and when asked how many suspects had attacked him he raised a single finger.

“We believe the shooting took place between the American Legion Post and the Catholic Worker (on Niagara Avenue),” Palmer said. “There was a significant blood trail, west, down Niagara Avenue to the front of the mini-mart.”

Lovett suffered a single gunshot wound to his upper left leg that severed a major artery. He was pronounced dead in the emergency room at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center.

Palmer declined to say whether investigators have identified a suspect in the case.

“We’re limiting our information release at this point,” Palmer said. “We have not identified a motive, though we are looking at possible drug involvement or robbery.”

The detective chief declined to comment on whether a significant quantity of marijuana was recovered from Lovett’s pants pockets.

While Falls police said they were not familiar with Lovett, the victim reportedly is known to Buffalo Police and has a criminal history there.