Man is sentenced for standoff

YOUNGSTOWN — The second of two men arrested after a three-hour police standoff at a South Side fire scene has been put on two years’ probation, fined $1,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.

Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Thursday on James Young, 52, of Williamson Avenue, who pleaded guilty to disrupting public service, a fourth-degree felony.

Young pointed an air gun that looked like an assault rifle at firefighters, causing them to take cover behind their trucks at a vacant house fire June 27 on East Delason Avenue, police said.

Judge Franken sentenced the other man arrested in this incident, William C. Pietz, 30, to a year in prison in October after he pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Pietz yelled at firefighters, who were allowing the house on his street to burn down for safety reasons, that they should have extinguished the blaze.

After the confrontation with firefighters, Pietz and Young entered Pietz’s house and refused to come out, police said.

Both men surrendered after Pietz was hit in the buttocks with a 40 mm rubber beanbag round and police threatened to use tear gas.

Police confiscated three air guns, two pistols and a rifle from Pietz’s residence after the standoff.