Two brothers get prison for shooting at cops

YOUNGSTOWN -- Two Truesdale Avenue brothers were sentenced to seven years in prison by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for shooting at two city police officers who were in plain clothes.
Ernie Cruz, 23, and Elvis Cruz, 19, each had pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to two counts of felonious assault and one count of possessing a dangerous ordnance. Elvis Cruz also pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine.
Each man also had pleaded guilty to using a firearm, which carries a mandatory three-year prison sentence.
That sentence is included in the seven-year total, which they received Wednesday.
Assistant Prosecutor Patrick R. Pochiro said the brothers fired at the policemen who were in plain clothes in January.
Neither of the officers was hit.
Pochiro said the officers were meeting with informants in a parking lot off Federal Street. He said the Cruz brothers saw them from a nearby bridge and fired their guns to scare the people in the lot. He said the brothers were not aware that two of the people were police officers.