Cigar shop robbed

Cigar shop robbed
GIRARD -- Durk's Cigar Shop, 17 E. Liberty St., was robbed of $30 Wednesday.
Police reported a man went into the store shortly before 7:30 p.m., struck the clerk over the head with a ceramic beer stein, rifled the cash register and fled.
Warren house fire
WARREN -- Firefighters are investigating a fire about 6:30 this morning at 180 Linden Street N.E.
The family living there escaped unhurt, firefighters said
No other details were immediately available.
School conferences
NEWTON FALLS -- Parent-teacher conferences will be next Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the junior high and high schools, and from 5 to 8 p.m. at the primary and middle schools.
Additional conferences will be Oct. 12 from 8 to 11:30 a.m. at all schools. Pupils will not have class Oct. 12.
Parents are asked to call the schools between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. to schedule appointments.
Man faces charges
COITSVILLE -- A 54-year-old Niles man was arrested on charges of aggravated menacing and carrying a concealed weapon as a result of what police are calling a fit of road rage around 6 p.m. Tuesday near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border.
Police said the man was driving on Pa. Route 208 toward Ohio when an 18-year-old Hubbard man, driving with his 16-year-old sister, attempted to pass him.
The 18-year-old told police the Niles man wouldn't let him pass, flashed a gun out the window as they entered Ohio, then motioned with the gun to pull over.
Police found the Niles man and pulled him over. They said they found a loaded handgun and an open beer in the vehicle.
The man is being held without bond in the Mahoning County Jail pending an appearance in Campbell Municipal Court at 9 a.m. Friday.
Toddler dies in accident
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Shenango Township Police say a Gardner-Center Road man accidentally ran over his 15-month-old son with a pickup truck.
Chase William Watkins died at St. Francis Hospital in New Castle.
The child's father, William Watkins Jr., was working in his driveway with the child's grandfather when he decided he needed to go to the store at about 12:50 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
Watkins did not see the boy near the truck when he started to pull away from the house.
Fatal ditch cave-in
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A 52-year-old city man died after a ditch he was helping dig at his home collapsed on him, said Lawrence County Coroner J. Russell Noga.
Donald Marshall of Schley Street died of head injuries at about 2 p.m. Wednesday, Noga said.
Marshall and another man were digging up a sewage line with a backhoe when Marshall jumped into the 8-foot-deep, 21/2-foot-wide trench to check it.
Cops seek ID of man
FARRELL, Pa. -- Southwest Regional Police were trying this morning to identify a man shot to death on the 200 block of Fruit Avenue.
The black man in his mid-20s was found on the sidewalk at about 11:52 p.m. Wednesday. He had been shot at least once in the head, and he was pronounced dead at the scene by Mercer County Coroner J. Bradley McGonigle.
3 charged in GNC thefts
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Three New York City men were in Lawrence County Jail this morning, accused of shoplifting thousands of dollars worth of vitamins and bodybuilding supplements from area General Nutrition Center stores.
Pennsylvania State Police arrested Victor M. Garcia, 22, of 205 E. 112th St., Frederick Hornedo, 24, of 332 of E. 115th St., and Gilbert Delgado, 22, of 1738 Lexington Ave.
Police said the three were involved in a large-scale, multicounty retail theft ring, targeting GNC stores in Lawrence, Mercer, Crawford and Clarion counties.
Police suspect the vitamins and bodybuilding supplements were headed to New York City, where they would be sold on the streets.
Each man faces charges of retail theft, theft, criminal conspiracy and receiving stolen property in the theft of about $2,000 worth of vitamins and bodybuilding supplements from the GNC store in Union Township at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 20.
State police in New Castle said the men face similar charges in Mercer, Crawford and Clarion counties. They were arraigned before District Justice J.V. Lamb and jailed in lieu of $20,000 bond each.