Man reports shooting

Man reports shooting
AUSTINTOWN -- A Maplecrest Drive man told police that someone fired a handgun at his 11-year-old son as he rode his bike Friday evening. The man said his son was riding his bike on Maplecrest Drive at about 7:30 p.m. when a man driving a white car fired three shots out of his window. The shooter then drove away. The boy, who was not hit, fell off his bike and injured his knees and legs. He said he thought the shots may have been blanks. Police are investigating.
Police seek vandals
POLAND -- Township police are searching for vandals who smashed six mailboxes and two car windows on Shetland Lane, Knollwood Avenue and Country Lane and leading into Struthers. Damage to mailboxes on Country Lane occurred sometime between midnight and 6 a.m. Sunday, police reports show. The driver window of a Chevrolet S-10 truck parked on Shetland was smashed sometime between about midnight and 2:20 a.m. Sunday. The front windshield of a Chevrolet Cavalier was smashed sometime between 10:30 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 a.m. Sunday on Knollwood. Police said it appeared to have been hit with a baseball bat.
Armed robbery
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Youngstown woman told police she and her friends were robbed at gunpoint while leaving a local bar. The 19-year-old woman said she was walking with friends at 1:50 a.m. Friday from the Varsity Club on Market Street to their vehicles in the rear parking lot when three men approached. According to reports, one man pointed a handgun at the woman's stomach and said, "Give me everything you have. You're about to die." As the woman handed over $56 in cash, one of the men said to her he "did not know this was going to happen." The men -- two of whom were wearing red shirts and the third wearing a blue-and-white checkered shirt -- fled in a white, four-door Ford Tempo.
Narrow miss by bullet
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Florencedale Avenue man told police a bullet missed him by only a few feet in his residence. According to reports, the 74-year-old man was in his bathroom at 1 a.m. today when he heard shots fired from the house behind his. Police got no response when they went to the other house. No shell casings were found.
Schools receive grants
Two local schools were among 15 state-chartered, nonpublic schools receiving grants from Ohio SchoolNet. Immaculate Conception in Youngstown and St. Patrick in Hubbard were each awarded $8,000 Ohio SchoolNet Telecommunity Internet grants for use in equipment purchases, professional development and content development. The program provides grants to fund two-way interactive distance learning and Internet-based teaching and learning projects. The grants are wholly funded through agreements among the Department of Education, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and nine local telephone companies across Ohio, including SBC/Ameritech locally.
Facing multiple charges
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 42-year-old Elm Street man was arrested Sunday morning on numerous charges after a traffic stop. Mark L. Stanford was detained on warrants accusing him of menacing by stalking, criminal trespass and not having an operator's license. He also was charged with possession of methadone pills and possession of two suspected master car keys. According to reports, police stopped Stanford about 4 a.m. for traffic violations at Park and Michigan and he twice gave a false name and date of birth. After providing the correct information, police determined the burgundy 1986 Pontiac he was driving was registered to another Youngstown man. The vehicle was towed to determine if it was stolen. Stanford was to be arraigned today.
Stolen credit card
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Cornell Street woman told police someone took her mother's credit card and charged more than $4,000 in three days. The daughter said she noticed the Discover card was missing from a kitchen drawer Friday afternoon when she came home and found her mother's home health aide gone. The daughter told police she had contracted the 24-year-old woman through a local agency to care for her 66-year-old mother during the day. The worker, who was supposed to start last Monday, called off, saying her car broke down in Cincinnati. She started Tuesday, but when the daughter came home at 4:15 p.m. Friday, the caretaker, who was supposed to work until 5 p.m., was not there. After calling Discover, the daughter found the address had been changed on the card to a nonexistent location, and that several charges has been made since Wednesday, including more than $3,000 at a car dealership in Cincinnati, reports show. The worker, of West Chalmers Avenue, was arrested early today on a charge of obstructing official business. More charges were to be filed today, police said.
Facing firearm charge
AUSTINTOWN -- Township police arrested a Canfield man Saturday night after he told them he had thrown a handgun out of his car window. The man, 18, of Glenview Drive, is charged by police with improper transportation of a firearm. Police received reports Saturday night of people in a tan Chevy Blazer threatening motorists with a gun in the area of North Four Mile Run and Crum roads. An officer spotted a tan Blazer on Webb Road at about 9:15 p.m. Police said a blue bag was thrown out of the Blazer. The gun and ammunition were found in the bag. The Glenview Drive man told police he displayed the gun earlier in the night during a dispute in Youngstown. Police there later arrested the man and charged him with aggravated menacing as a result of the dispute.
Thefts reported
AUSTINTOWN -- A Cortland man told police his business partner stole $6,125 worth of electronic and entertainment equipment Saturday evening from their South Raccoon Road caf & eacute;. The man said the equipment included a pool table, two big-screen televisions and two air purifiers. He said his girlfriend saw a man loading the equipment into a truck at about 7 p.m. The man told the girlfriend that the business partner wanted the equipment to be removed. Police are investigating. Police also received an unrelated report Sunday that $5,150 in jewelry was stolen from a South Roanoke Avenue home. The woman said her screen window was torn and the jewelry was taken out of her jewelry box. Several bottles of lotion also had been taken. Police are investigating.