A 19-year-old man was shot in the stomach outside a southeast Canton grocery store Monday afternoon while his mother was working inside the same building, and as of Tuesday no suspect had been publicly identified. Canton police responded to Sommers Discount Market on Gonder Avenue SE around 4:25 p.m. after someone reported seeing a man crawling through the parking lot.
An employee called police to report that the man, identified by officers as Xavion Marquis Townsend, 19, had been shot in the stomach, according to cantonrep.com. A witness who had arrived at the store to buy groceries spotted Townsend crawling through the lot and ran inside to have someone call 911, per a report from jordanmiller.news.
Townsend's mother worked at Sommers Discount Market and had last seen her son sitting at picnic tables outside the store about 40 minutes before officers were called, according to police records cited by Cleveland 19 News. She told dispatchers that someone had come into the store and said to call 911 because a person had been shot, then went outside and identified the victim as her son, per the 911 call referenced in the same report. Police records indicate Townsend had come to the store to spend the day because he was having issues with his girlfriend.
Suspect Described as Masked Man in All Black
Witnesses described the suspect as a Black male wearing all-black clothing and a camouflage face mask, the station's report notes. Two juvenile witnesses reported seeing a suspect running from the scene, and police said the suspect fled east between two apartment buildings before appearing to enter a nearby apartment complex.
Officers set up a perimeter around the complex and searched multiple apartments with residents' consent, but no suspect was located inside, per the same account. As of Tuesday morning, police had not publicly identified a suspect or announced any arrests in the case.
Conflicting Reports on Victim's Condition
Medics took Townsend to Aultman Hospital after the shooting. Accounts of his condition differ: one report says he was last known to be in stable condition as of Tuesday morning, while Townsend's condition was described as unknown as of Tuesday afternoon, per Cleveland 19 News.
The shooting remains under investigation. It comes amid a troubling trend in the city — the number of homicides in Canton more than doubled in 2025 compared with 2024, according to cantonrep.com, while the overall number of people killed by others in Stark County increased by one over the same period.
