CRIME Police arrest suspect in attempted robbery

YOUNGSTOWN -- One of two masked and armed teenage boys who police said tried to rob Mike's Beauty Supply on Glenwood Avenue was caught down the street, breathing hard.
Arzell Muldrow, 17, of Vernon Street, was taken to the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center Tuesday evening to face charges of aggravated robbery and carrying a concealed weapon, a loaded 9mm. Police said the second suspect, also 17, escaped after dropping his rifle on the sidewalk at the store and running toward Canfield Road.
The store owner told police he was standing on the sidewalk talking to customers who had just walked across the street when the robbers came around the corner of the building.
'This is a robbery'
He said the first, later identified as Muldrow, yelled, "This is a robbery, get on the floor [racial slur deleted]!" The owner thought, at first, that the boys were joking, laughed and told them to go away.
That's when Muldrow tried to strike the owner in the face with the pistol but missed, police said. The businessman then grabbed the door handle to run into his store.
The two robbers panicked and fled, reports show.
Police said Muldrow headed south on Glenwood and fired one shot as he ran.
Officers who found Muldrow down the street said he was breathing hard and looking in all directions. After seizing the 9mm from the boy's rear pants pocket, police took him back to the store where he was positively identified by the owner.
The victim also recognized the pistol, which has a silver-tipped barrel, and Muldrow's shirt. Muldrow told police he didn't try to rob the store owner and said the gun wasn't his.