Parishioner robbed inside North Side church

A parishioner said he struggled with the robbers.

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A confrontation with gunmen has members of a North Side church thinking about the need for improved security.

“It takes a low person to rob from God — a misled person,” said Jerry Serbel, a member of St. Casimir, Jefferson Street.

Serbel arrived at the church Tuesday morning to prepare for a monthly senior-citizens-group meeting that was to start a noon. Three women also were in the church.

About 10:45 a.m., one of the women told Serbel that two men where in a hallway. He went to see what the men wanted.

“One of the men poked a revolver right in my face and said, ‘Give me your wallet,’” Serbel said.

Serbel said he struggled with one of the men, slamming a door to try to get him out of the room. The man slammed the door open again and demanded Serbel’s wallet.

Serbel showed his wallet, the credit cards falling to the floor. The robber took $24 in cash.

“That’s a lot of money when you aren’t working,” he said.

One of the women came down to the hallway to see what was happening. When she tried to run back up the stairs, one of the men fired his gun and yelled for her to come back down, Serbel said.

The woman didn’t come back downstairs. The shot didn’t hit her, but she was treated at the hospital because of a heart condition, he said.

Serbel ran out of the church, calling for a woman who lives nearby to call police.

The men entered through a door kept unlocked when the building is in use. The door is on the other side of the building from where meetings happen — and with no doorbell, a person trying to join a meeting would have no way of letting those inside know that they’re there.

“We’re going to have to have some kind of security, a buzzer or something,” Serbel said.