ATTACK Mineral Ridge man shot in Austintown parking lot

A minor traffic accident preceded the shooting.
AUSTINTOWN -- A Mineral Ridge man was in St. Elizabeth Health Center this morning after being shot in the parking lot of Burger King at the corner of Mahoning Avenue and Clarkins Drive.
Mike Burns, 24, of Lakeside Drive, was shot in the thigh between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., police reports state. A St. Elizabeth spokeswoman said Burns was still in recovery this morning and had not been assigned a condition.
Burns is slated to be turned over to Niles police on warrants for failing to appear in court on charges of aggravated assault and furnishing minors with alcohol.
His account
Burns told police Thursday night at the hospital that the shooting stemmed from a traffic dispute. He said he was a passenger in a car driven by his girlfriend that was involved in a minor traffic accident in the Burger King drive-through.
Burns told police the accident led to a physical altercation between him and the driver of the other car, a 6-foot-tall white man with blond hair who weighed about 200 pounds. He said that during the fight, the passenger in the other car, a thin, 5-foot-6-inch black man with brown dreadlocks and wearing a blue jersey, got out and shot him with a revolver.
They drove away
Reports state that the men in the other car drove away; Burns said he ran into the Burger King. His girlfriend later drove him to Austintown Ambulatory, where police were called. Burns was taken to St. Elizabeth's from Austintown Ambulatory by ambulance.
Police said that at St. Elizabeth's, they searched the car Burns was in before the shooting and found two plastic bags of suspected cocaine and a scale. There was blood on the bags, reports state. Reports don't indicate whose car it was.