Witnesses in Rockford Village report hearing rapid gunfire just before the bodies of two men were found shot to death on Youngstown's east side Thursday night in the area of Willow Court.

The deceased have been identified as:  23-year-old Charles Moore, and 27-year-old Marquell McLane.

Detectives say all indications are that the shooting victims were in a gun battle with each other.

Captain Brad Blackburn is the Chief of Detectives for the Youngstown Police Department, "What we're finding so far from talking to the witnesses that were there, and the physical evidence is the individuals exchanged gunfire while striking each other."

McLane was found bleeding on the ground, Moore was deceased in the driver's seat of a car - bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest.  A woman who was in the car with Moore told police when she heard the gunfire she grabbed her child from the back seat and made a run for it to safety. 

Detectives believe an on-going disagreement between the two victims triggered the violence.

"We know it's been an on-going feud between them, but what the root cause is or the reason we don't know," Captain Blackburn said.

Additional police patrols had to be called out to help deal with the large crowd that gathered at the crime scene, and authorities say despite Thursday night's double murder, there is a good police presence in the area.

"I don't think it's any higher crime than some of the other areas in the city, but unfortunately it's densely populated, and there's a lot of people living in a smaller area," Blackburn said.

The investigation is on-going.  McLane and Moore are the city of Youngstown's seventh and eight homicide victims this year.