YOUNGSTOWN — A girl, 15, was found inside a car with a gunshot wound outside of Martha’s Boulevard Tavern, 3505 Southern Blvd., at 10:39 p.m. Saturday after officers went to the bar for a shooting.

Officers “found a chaotic scene” with about 30 people outside of the tavern. They sifted though the crowd to find the girl, who was treated by ambulance personnel and taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to a Youngstown police press release.

Officers with the department’s Neighborhood Response Unit and patrol division responded to the scene “within minutes” of being notified of the shooting, the news release states, adding that detectives and investigators with the department’s crime lab responded shortly thereafter to begin an investigation.

Detectives are conducting numerous interviews and watching possible surveillance video, and the investigation is ongoing, police said.

No arrests had been made in the case as of Sunday night.

The police department and Mahoning County Coroner’s Office are investigating the killing. Tips leading to an arrest and/or prosecution are eligible for a monetary reward. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers 330-746-CLUE or 330-746-8YPD with information. Tips can be left anonymously.

If the death is ruled a homicide, it will be the fourth one this year in Youngstown.

There were two homicides Jan. 5 when a man and woman, both 19, were found shot in a vehicle on Interstate 680 near the Salt Springs Road exit and died.

They are Marquis Whitted and Kylearia Day. Police were called there for a possible accident and discovered the two gunshot victims in a car with multiple bullet holes.

There were no other homicides in Youngstown for more than three months until April 11, when Ray’mon Sims, 22, was shot to death on Tod Lane on the North Side at 2:46 p.m. and was later pronounced dead at St. Elizabeth Youngtown Hospital.

Police said a vehicle containing Sims and another man later crashed into the front porch of a home at Guadalupe Avenue and Alameda Avenue. The men left the vehicle and ran to the next street over, Crandall Avenue, where Sims collapsed and was treated by ambulance personnel and taken to the hospital.

Capt. Jason Simon of the detective division of the Youngstown Police Department last week pointed to “conflict mismanagement” as the best explanation for why there was a spike in violence Tuesday and Wednesday.

He was asked Thursday if the dramatic warm-up in the weather last week might be a contributing factor in the fatal shooting on Tod Lane, the shooting of a woman, 20, at the same time on Himrod Avenue near Pearl Street on the East Side and the shootings of three people outside a home on Pointview Avenue Wednesday night.

“When we have shootings or violent crime that revolve around conflict mismanagement, it does not matter the time of year that that happens. There is a conflict. And when those individuals see each other, they are going to try to resolve it,” Simon said.

On Thursday, the police department also announced that the department and its parters are renewing their efforts this spring, summer and fall to stop crime in high-crime areas.

The partners are the Ohio State Highway Patrol, FBI, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies.

Police Chief Carl Davis said the “Impact Initiative” will “focus on areas that have experienced elevated levels of crime related to narcotics and gun violence.”

He said the partnership with OSHP, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Ohio Adult Parole Authority and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office has been effective. Videos were shown of state troopers in aircraft and officers on the ground working together to chase and capture fleeing suspects during last year’s initiative.

Thursday marked the return of the effort, called the Impact Initiative. The police department announced the press conference related to the initiative weeks ago — before last week’s violence erupted.

“Officers will focus on areas that have experienced elevated levels of crime related to narcotics and gun violence. As we witnessed two days ago, there are a lot of individuals who believe carrying a gun and using a gun to resolve conflicts is the answer to their problems,” Davis said.

erunyan@vindy.com