Suspect in store theft flees from authorities

AUSTINTOWN -- A man suspected in the theft of cigarettes from Walgreen's fled a traffic stop, despite being ordered at gunpoint to stop, township police said.
James E. Jackson, no age or address provided, fled during the stop around 4 a.m. Tuesday on the Madison Avenue Expressway, according to a police report.
Jackson was a passenger in the car, which was driven by David J. Scott, 50, of East Warren Avenue, Youngstown. After Scott had gotten out of the car, Jackson leaped across the console into the driver's seat and started the car. Police ordered him at gunpoint to stop, and when he did not, they gassed him with an aerosol agent, the report said.
Jackson left the expressway onto Martin Luther King Boulevard at a high speed, the report said.
Police said they had seen two cartons of cigarettes under the front passenger seat, the report said.
Scott was arrested on a complicity to theft charge, police said. Jackson is facing charges of theft, fleeing and eluding and resisting arrest. He had not been apprehended as of Tuesday afternoon, said Austintown Detective Sgt. John Myers.
Scott was to appear in court today at 9 a.m.