Austintown man faces six charges in case of truck driven into crowd

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — An Austintown man is charged with six counts of felonious assault after being accused of driving his pickup truck into a crowd of people in a parking lot on Youngstown-Warren Road late Tuesday, injuring himself and two other people.

Michael A. Jones, 28, of Compass West South, pleaded innocent to the charges Wednesday in Warren Municipal Court.

Judge Terry F. Ivanchak set bond at $250,000 and ordered him to have no contact with the victims. A preliminary hearing will be scheduled within 10 days.

Warren police said the incident began with four women having an argument in a parking lot of a car dealership between Woodbine and Oak Knoll avenues Southeast in which one woman hit another woman with a wrench several times.

Jones drove his truck into a crowd at about 11 p.m., after the fight had started, a police report says.

The report doesn’t explain the relationship between Jones and the women.

The report says one of the women involved in the fight, a 21-year-old living in the same apartment building as Jones, suffered broken bones when the truck hit several people in the parking lot and pinned them against the building.

The woman was in intensive care at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown late Wednesday.

A 22-year-old Warren man was also hurt in the crash and admitted to Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries.

The police report says Jones suffered loss of teeth.

Police also listed four other people — from Howland, Bazetta and Warren, who also were victims of the assault, but the report doesn’t say whether they were injured.