CANFIELD 2 boys held after chase that left sergeant hurt

One teen also is suspected of breaking into a car belonging to a federal agent.
By NORMAN LEIGH
and IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
CANFIELD -- A Canfield police sergeant was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center by ambulance early today after a chase involving two stolen cars driven by 15-year-old Youngstown boys.
Sgt. Chuck Colucci was treated at the hospital. Both boys were later arrested.
Canfield police began the chase at about 1:30 a.m. after an officer clocked the cars traveling more than 65 mph south on North Broad Street near Sleepy Hollow Drive.
Police attempted to stop the cars on West Main Street near the library. The cars headed west on U.S. Route 224. Three Canfield cruisers got involved in the chase.
Sites of thefts: One of the cars had been stolen Tuesday night from the parking lot of the Fountain Square apartments in Austintown. The other was stolen from Warren. The date of the Warren theft was not included in Canfield police reports.
The officers tried to form a box around one of the cars with their cruisers near the intersection of Route 224 and state Route 45. Colucci stopped his cruiser in front of the car.
The driver then struck the rear of Colucci's cruiser twice before driving left around the cruiser. The cruiser was damaged, and Colucci broke off pursuit.
Another officer then tried to stop his cruiser in front of the stolen car. However, the driver again drove left around the cruiser and continued along 224.
Police eventually stopped the pursuit when speeds reached 100 mph near Berlin Center. The Mahoning County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol were informed of the chase.
Crash in Salem: At about 2 a.m., the state police's Lisbon Post notified Salem police that they were chasing one of the stolen cars. The chase began when a state trooper attempted to stop the car for speeding on the state Route 45 bypass in Perry Township.
The car crashed in Salem near the intersection of South Howard Avenue and West Wilson Street on the city's south side.
A search was mounted when authorities investigating the crash site did not find the driver there.
What was found: Inside the vehicle, they found a bulletproof vest and a black nylon bag containing paperwork and law enforcement equipment belonging to an agent of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The vest had been stolen from the agent's car Tuesday night while it was parked outside his residence on South Raccoon Road in Austintown.
Austintown police are investigating several similar thefts in that area. Several CDs were stolen Tuesday night from two other cars on South Raccoon Road.
About 150 yards from the crash site in Salem, city police found the boy hiding in a car in the 300 block of West Wilson Street and arrested him.
Authorities found a loaded .22-caliber handgun and a switchblade knife in the car. It's unclear who owns the items.
The boy was treated at Salem Community Hospital for face and chest injuries. He was then taken to the Columbiana County juvenile center, where he is being held.
Charges against the boy are pending, a state patrol spokesman said.
The other boy was arrested after the stolen car he was driving was found abandoned in Goshen Township. He was arrested by Smith Township, Goshen Township and Sebring police at 7 this morning at a home. Various charges are pending against him.