Witnesses capture suspect in robbery

Three of these robberies happened during daylight hours.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- A woman was dragged across a parking lot and a street in the second violent purse-snatching in the township in five days.
The 20-year-old Austintown woman was assaulted Monday in the parking lot of the Shell gas station at 4200 Mahoning Ave.
The woman was trying to get into her car about 1:30 p.m. when a man walked up and asked her how she was doing. She said "fine," and the man grabbed her purse.
She refused to let go, and the man dragged her through the parking lot, across North Edgehill Avenue and into the parking lot of Chipper's sports bar, the report said.
As the woman yelled for help, two men in the Shell parking lot responded. A man driving down North Edgehill also saw her being dragged, and he stopped to help.
The three witnesses chased the suspect and caught him at the township fire station on Wickliffe Circle. They called police, the report said.
An ambulance was called, and the woman was treated at the scene for cuts to her knee and hand.
Charged with robbery, a second-degree felony, is John Lee, 39, of 69 Westminster Ave., No. 21, Austintown. He is jailed and is expected to appear in Mahoning County Court No. 4 today.
Another case
Two other men are charged with complicity to robbery in a purse-snatching that injured a 74-year-old woman. Her arm and shoulder were hurt when she was shoved to the ground outside the McDonald's on Raccoon Road on Jan. 4. That assault also happened in the afternoon -- about 2:30.
Charged are Eric Begley, 20, of Signature Drive, Austintown, and Robert R. Carfolo Jr., of Ridgelawn Avenue, Youngstown. They were arrested a short time after the assault when a police officer recognized a description of their van.
Others
Other women have been robbery victims recently in the township.
Purse-snatchings and robberies "are picking up for some reason," said Austintown Detective Sgt. Dan Kosco.
A Cracker Barrel employee was robbed of $52 while she was walking to her car the night of Dec. 30 at the Interstate Boulevard restaurant. A man walked up and told her to give him everything in her pocket, according to a police report.
A woman was robbed at about 9 a.m. Nov. 29 in the parking lot at the shopping plaza at 6007 Mahoning Ave. A man approached her pretending to need directions. He told her to kneel down or he would hurt her, then took $256 from her wallet and drove away.
starmack@vindy.com