Youngstown teens held in carjacking

STAFF REPORT

SHARON, Pa. — Two Youngstown teenagers were arrested after a carjacking that began in Sharon and ended in Brookfield, with a loaded gun being recovered.

Sharon Police Chief Michael Menster said Algernon Franklin, 18, of Stiles Street, and Cleo Johnson, 17, of Keogh Avenue, are in custody in Trumbull County.

Johnson is in a juvenile center there but is being charged as an adult in Pennsylvania, Menster said. Franklin is in the Trumbull County Jail.

Menster said his department got a call at 8 p.m. Monday that there had been a carjacking in the parking lot of a convenience store on New Castle Avenue.

He said the victim, a 37-year-old Sharon man, reported that two men had approached him as he got out of his Ford Expedition.

He said one of them pointed a gun at him and ordered him away from the vehicle. The two got in and drove off, he said.

Sharon police put out a description of the men and the Expedition, and it was spotted in Brookfield at Addison Road and state Route 62, Menster said. Police pursued the vehicle to the intersection of Bedford Road and Route 62 in Ohio.

Both men got out and ran, Menster said. Brookfield police arrested Franklin after a foot chase, he said.

Police from Hubbard Township, Ohio State Highway Patrol and a canine unit from Youngstown Police Department assisted in a search for Johnson in a wooded area nearby, Menster said.

Brookfield police recovered the gun, Menster said. It was a loaded Ruger .357 Magnum.

Menster said Sharon police are charging the suspects with robbery of a motor vehicle, criminal conspiracy, carrying an unlicensed firearm and receiving stolen property.

Brookfield police are charging Johnson with receiving stolen property, resisting arrest and carrying a concealed weapon, Menster said.

Franklin is charged in Ohio with receiving stolen property and failure to comply with a police officer’s order.