Police arrest 3 men in robbery case

An employee of a Doral Drive discount store told police she’d been robbed of the store’s deposit.

BOARDMAN — Police arrested three men stemming from the robbery of one business and continue to investigate a second robbery at another business.

About 2 p.m. Monday, a man went into Central Cash, Market Street, spoke to an employee about a transaction and then said he didn’t want any trouble, lifting his shirt to expose the butt of a gun, a police report said.

The employee gave the man cash from the register, and he left. A witness saw a white sport utility vehicle leave the lot of the store, heading north on Market. Police located the SUV at Market and Midlothian Boulevard and stopped it.

Police found a sweat shirt that matched the description of what the robber was wearing and a BB gun pistol in the vehicle.

The employee identified one of the men, Mark Watts, 18, of Cleveland, as the robber. Watts was charged with aggravated robbery.

The driver, Noah Williams, 18, of Kent, had been in the store earlier asking about a loan, the employee told police. He and the other man in the SUV, Donte Cole, 23, of Cleveland, were each charged with complicity to aggravated robbery.

All three are housed in the Mahoning County Jail with their preliminary hearings set for Jan. 22.

About 9 p.m. Monday, police were called to Dollar Tree, Doral Drive, for another aggravated robbery.

An employee told police that she and another employee had locked the door of the business when a man in a late-model blue car pulled up behind them, got out of the car and approached them, demanding money and pointing a gun. The employee removed the deposit from her purse and handed it to the robber, who then got back into the car and drove through the parking lot.