Loud music in car leads to gun arrest

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Police said a Truesdale Avenue man stopped for playing loud music in his car wound up in a lot more trouble when officers found a loaded handgun under his seat.

Officers working an anti-gang detail around 11 p.m. Friday in the area of Hilton Avenue and Rush Boulevard were sitting in a car in a driveway of a vacant house in the 200 block of Hilton when they heard music coming from a car estimated to be about 300 feet away.

They watched the car turn south onto Rush and followed it as it then turned east onto Judson Avenue, where they stopped it. The driver was identified as Andre M. Whitlor, 25, of North Truesdale.

Officers determined that he was driving under a suspended license and ordered him out of the car.

They then found that he was wearing a bulletproof vest, a garment he said he donned because he had been shot before.

Whitlor told officers that he had a gun under his car seat, police said, and they found the loaded 9mm handgun.

Whitlor was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, driving under suspension and a loud- music violation and was lodged in Mahoning County Jail to await arraignment Monday.