Three boys charged after pizza shop robbery

BOARDMAN — Three juvenile boys face several charges, accused of participating in a robbery at a Southern Boulevard pizza shop.

About 6 p.m. Saturday, two employees of Southgate Pizza, Southern Boulevard, say two males wearing ski masks came into the restaurant and one held a handgun, pointing it at one of the employees.

The employee began running toward the rear of the building as the gunman yelled at her. The woman pressed the restaurant’s panic button and ran out of the building. The second employee also ran out of the restaurant.

Both women thought they recognized the voice of one of the robbers as someone with whom they had attended school.

A few minutes later, two teenaged boys, one 16 and one 15, reported that a car pulled alongside them while they were walking on Southern and one of its occupants, wearing a bandana over his face, got out and took a pizza that the two had just purchased at Southgate.

A police officer spotted a car that matched the description given by the boys and stopped it. The driver was identified as the boy whose voice the two pizza shop employees recognized.

Police found ski masks and bandanas as well as 12 small plastic bags of suspected marijuana inside the car.

The driver, 17, of Southern, Boardman, was charged with aggravated robbery, complicity to theft and marijuana trafficking.

One of the other boys, 15, of South Avenue, Youngstown, was charged with complicity to aggravated robbery and theft. A third, 17, of East Judson Avenue, Youngstown, was charged with complicity to aggravated robbery. All three were taken to the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center.