YOUNGSTOWN Residents respond to shooting at house

The woman has lived in the East Side home for more than 50 years.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Earlynne Vaughn's high, quiet voice was almost inaudible because of the tears.
"Am I safe?" she asked.
The 87-year-old North Garland woman stood on her front porch in the East Side neighborhood Tuesday, minutes after a bullet had ripped through a window as she had sat trying to figure out her bills.
"I came here in 1951 and I'm not afraid," Vaughn said, as she was comforted by a friend. " ... I'm not afraid at all."
Vaughn's neighbor, Nathaniel Lopez, 18, said he heard the gunfire as he watched television with his 1-year-old son. He saw two teen-agers walking down Garland Avenue firing a handgun.
He then saw Vaughn come out of her house.
"She doesn't mess with nobody. She's calm, collected. She barely comes out of her house," Lopez said. "She came out and was hysterical.
"It's sad to see kids this young who've got nothing better to do with their time than running around shooting guns. When we were in school, we were playing basketball."
Arrested: The gunfire came at about 10:18 a.m. About 20 minutes later, city police and members of the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force arrested an 18-year-old man who was removing his clothes as he hid inside a parked car on Berkley Avenue.
Police called to the scene said they had seen the teen and another male and found them leaving a convenience store at McGuffey Road and North Garland Avenue. When officers ordered them to stop, the 18-year-old said, "I do not have a gun," but he refused to remove his right hand from his pocket. Both males ran.
The 18-year-old, of Cassius Avenue, was found hiding in a gray Oldsmobile. The steering column of the car had been damaged. He faces charges of obstructing official business and resisting arrest.
Police used a dog to search the area for a gun but found none. The other male was not found.
Vaughn said the bullet that came into her home went through a window and an inside door before becoming tangled in draperies.
Lopez helped her find it.
He said he is not afraid to stay in the neighborhood but feels fortunate that neither his son nor his pregnant girlfriend was hit by a bullet.
"They should be hitting the books instead of shooting guns and being in gangs," he said.