4th Ward Block Watch

4th Ward Block Watch
GIRARD -- The 4th Ward Block Watch will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the multipurpose center, Tod Woods School. Schools Superintendent Joseph Shoaf will be guest speaker.
Flu, pneumonia shots
YOUNGSTOWN -- Flu and pneumonia shots will be given by the city health department from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Friday in city hall council chambers and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday in Youngstown Baptist Church, 554 S. Meridian Road. Costs are $10 for flu shot and $15 for pneumonia vaccine.
Violence prevention
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown-based Help Hotline Crisis Center Inc. has received a two-year $150,000 grant from Anthem Foundation of Ohio to plan a tri-county family violence prevention project.
Dorothy Miller, project coordinator, said Help Hotline is a lead agency that will bring together organizations from Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties to address ways to prevent abuse against domestic partners, children and the elderly.
Miller said the planning stage will collect data, assess services, identify gaps and duplications in service and look at systems to identify problems. By the end of the two years, she said, Anthem requires that the group form a coalition and implement a plan.
The project will get under way Friday when representatives from more than 100 agencies will attend a kickoff event in Boardman.
Sharon street to close
SHARON, Pa. -- East State Street will be closed to through traffic for most of the day Thursday as the city prepares for its annual Light Up Night celebration to mark the holiday season. The street will be closed at 8:30 a.m. from Water Avenue to Shenango Avenue and then from Water Avenue to Chestnut Avenue at 3:30 p.m. It will be closed briefly from Water Avenue to Oakland Avenue for a parade at 6:45 p.m.
Shoe store robbed
SHARON, Pa. -- Police said a man who said he had a gun in his pocket took a small amount of cash from the Payless ShoeSource store at 1138 E. State St., around 5:20 p.m. Monday.
A store clerk said the man walked in and at first said he was looking for a pair of shoes for his wife but then said he had a gun in his pants pocket and ordered her to open the cash register. He grabbed money and ran south along White Avenue. He was described as a light-skinned black man in his early 20s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing around 180 pounds. He wore baggy khaki cargo pants and a blue-jean jacket.
Youngstown man shot
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 31-year-old man was treated at St. Elizabeth Health Center for a bullet wound he suffered Monday morning at Market Street and Boston Avenue.
Anthony H. Brock, of Wilmette Lane, was shot once in the back at 8:35 a.m., and the bullet came out his right shoulder.
Police said they saw seven bullet holes along the driver's side of Brock's vehicle in a driveway and found the injured Brock on the porch of a nearby residence.
Prisoner escapes
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- New Castle police are searching for a Youngstown man who escaped from them.
Sean Rushton, 30, of Ayers Street faces charges of possession of drugs with intent to deliver, resisting arrest, aggravated assault and escaping police custody.
Police said they arrested Rushton after he was pulled over for a traffic violation at 9:23 a.m. Saturday on Liberty Street and they discovered there was a warrant for his arrest in another traffic matter.
When police took Rushton to the police department to wait for arraignment before a district magistrate, they found packets of suspected heroin on him. They said he refused to go into a jail cell and slumped to the floor.
An officer dragged Rushton into the cell, where he stood up and rushed the officer, police said. The officer pushed him back into the cell, where he fell against a wall near a metal sink and cot, police said.
Officers called an ambulance to take him to St. Francis Hospital, which he left about 4:30 a.m. Sunday with the help of others.