Niles man faces several charges after leading police on chase

The man was treated at Beeghly after a police officer struck him in the head.
BOARDMAN -- A Niles man faces several charges after leading police on a pursuit while armed with a handgun.
Early Sunday, an officer saw a car driven by Sterling Carter, 24, of Pratt Street traveling on Glenwood Avenue without a front license plate. The officer tried to stop the car when it turned onto Judson Avenue, and the driver then appeared to be trying to throw something out of the car, a police report said.
The officer followed the car and the report said that it appeared several times that the driver was going to bail from the vehicle. The highest speed during the pursuit was 55 mph.
The car turned back onto Glenwood and into a driveway on Volney Drive when the driver lost control and hit a chain link fence.
Carter then got out of the car and reached to his waistband, moved away from the car and looked at the ground before dropping to his knees and searching on the ground, according to the report.
The officer believed that Carter was looking for a weapon that he'd dropped. The officer was a few feet from Carter and struck him with a flashlight because he was unsure he'd have time to draw his gun.
Carter fell to the ground and the officer pulled him away from the area where he'd been searching. An off-duty Youngstown officer who lives nearby then ran up with gun drawn to assist.
Found loaded gun
They handcuffed Carter and found a loaded handgun on the ground where he'd been searching.
Carter told police that the gun belongs to his mother and that he ran from police because he didn't want to get in trouble, reports said.
Carter was treated at Forum Health Beeghly Medical Center for a cut on his head.
Carter was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer, illegal possession of a weapon and attempted felonious assault on a police officer.
He was lodged in the Mahoning County Justice Center.