Probing student’s death

Probing student’s death

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University police and the Mahoning County coroner’s office are investigating the death of a YSU student found dead in his campus apartment Wednesday.

The student’s identity wasn’t revealed.

An e-mail sent to the campus community by David C. Sweet, YSU president, said the student was found dead in his bed by in the University courtyard Apartments by a roommate Wednesday morning. The apartment complex is on Wick Oval off Spring Street.

YSU police said there was no indication of foul play. No report was available Wednesday afternoon from police or the coroner’s office.

Damages from 2 fires

YOUNGSTOWN — A fire deliberately set at the former Nyabinghi bar at 1229 Salt Springs Road did $5,000 damage to the property, reports show. Utilities were off before the fire was called in around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Records show the building is involved in a bank foreclosure and has delinquent taxes of $2,898.

Firefighters said footprints could be seen in the snow going to and from a side door. Damage was confined to a stage area of the business listed as Pope’s Pub on fire reports. Vindicator files show the bar’s last night open was New Year’s Eve. Photos of the structure were not possible because of the amount of steam caused by low temperature, the fire department said.

Elsewhere, a cigarette may be the cause of a fire at 735 Palmer Ave. on the South Side at 3:20 a.m. Wednesday, the fire department said.

The occupant said she thought she put the cigarette out before she placed it on a windowsill. The window area caught on fire and did $6,000 damage to the property and contents, reports show.

Facing new charges

YOUNGSTOWN — A Mahoning County Common Pleas judge placed Corey Council on two years’ probation in late October for improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle.

Council, 20, of West Princeton Avenue has a new charge of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, plus drug-abuse marijuana.

He was arraigned Wednesday in municipal court on the charges. Bond was set at $25,000 and he will be back Tuesday for a preliminary hearing. He remains in jail pending a probation violation hearing in common pleas court based on the new charge.

Police pulled Council over on the South Side Tuesday night after he failed to stop for a stop sign. He had no identification or license with him and officers smelled burned marijuana, reports show. An inventory of the car taken before it was towed turned up a loaded 9mm handgun in the glove box, police said. The marijuana was found in the back seat of the cruiser. Officers also seized $452 from Council.

Illegal drugs found

LIBERTY — Township police are looking for the person responsible for $150,000 worth of illegal drugs found under the stairwell of a township hotel.

Police Chief Rich Tisone said officers responded to a call about suspicious activity at the Quality Inn Hotel on Belmont Avenue at midnight Tuesday. The responding officers found five individually wrapped kilos of cocaine tucked under the stairwell.

Tisone said the street value of the drugs is about $30,000 per kilo.

No arrest has been made. Tisone said the drugs will be destroyed once the investigation and any legal proceedings have been concluded.