Police arrest fugitive in robberies

The police acted on a tip and found the man under a pile of clothes.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The 19-year-old man accused of using a gun to hold up three West Side pizza shops was due in municipal court today for arraignment.
John A. Jenkins, also known as J-Black, of Neosho Road had eluded police since June 27, when three aggravated robbery warrants were issued. He was featured Sunday as fugitive of the week in The Vindicator.
Acting on a tip, police went to a house in the 400 block of West Boston Avenue on Tuesday afternoon and found Jenkins hiding beneath a pile of clothes in a basement laundry room. As he rose from the pile, police said he yelled, "I have a gun! You had better kill me!"
Jenkins did not have a gun and was taken into custody after a brief struggle, police said.
What woman said
A woman who lives at the house told police that Jenkins must have broken in, but he told officers that she is his cousin and allowed him to hide out there.
Jenkins is accused of robbing Pizza Joe's on June 18, Cornersburg Pizza on June 19 and East of Chicago Pizza on June 22. All the businesses are on Canfield Road.
Jenkins also faces sentencing in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for the aggravated robbery of the Sav-A-Step store on Youngstown-Hubbard Road in October 2005. He failed to show for the sentencing June 29.