Man charged with felonious assault on his girlfriend

YOUNGSTOWN — The man whose Glenwood Avenue home was surrounded by police after his bruised and naked girlfriend reported being beaten by him and shot at with an assault weapon has been charged with felonious assault.

Several canisters of tear gas were lobbed into 1823 Glenwood this morning by members of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force Crisis Response Team. Officers who then searched the South Side home didn’t find 38-year-old Hester Howell but did find a Mac-11 assault type firearm with 14 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber.

He was arrested just before noon, police said.

The drama began around 1:30 a.m. when police were sent to the 2500 hundred block of Glenwood and found Howell’s 41-year-old girlfriend, naked and bleeding from the head. She told officers that she had managed to escape from Howell’s home and flag down a passing motorist who took her to a pay phone to call 911.

The injured woman said they’d been drinking at a barbecue on Marion Avenue before the attack, reports show. Howell, she told police, demanded they leave the party and, once back at his place, accused her of infidelity, forced her to strip and punched her repeatedly before firing three rounds between her legs as she sat on the floor. The shots were fired so close that she had noticeable burn marks on her inner thighs, police said.

After about three hours, she was able to escape. The woman was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center for treatment.

Municipal court records show Howell was also wanted on unrelated traffic warrant for his failure to appear in court in May on charges of driving under suspension, illegal plates and unsafe vehicle.