Robbery, home invasion investigated by police

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

One man was beaten in one of the crimes.

YOUNGSTOWN — Police are looking for the individuals responsible for two separate robberies involving guns in the space of a half- hour.

Police were called to the 400 block of Francisca Avenue on the North Side just after 10 p.m. Tuesday when a 24-year-old Campbell woman said she had just been carjacked.

Police said the woman drove a man to a house in the 400 block of Francisca using her grandmother’s Kia Sportage vehicle. Police reports list the house as a known drug house.

The woman said the man went into the house to pick up some money. She said three men approached her car as she sat in the driveway of the house, asked if she was with the man who just went inside, then one of the men pulled out a handgun and ordered her out of the car.

All three men drove off in the vehicle.

About a half-hour later at 10:45 p.m. officers were called to the 700 block of Parmelee Avenue on the North Side where a man and woman said two armed men forced their way into the couple’s home.

When officers arrived at the home, they were met by a 21-year-old man who was bleeding from his face. The 20-year-old female was “visibly upset and crying.”

The couple told police they were waiting on a friend to stop by when they heard a knock on the door. Thinking the knock on the door was the expected company, the couple opened the door. Two men rushed into the home armed with guns and black masks, according to the police report.

The male was bound with duct tape and made to lay on the floor. He was beaten when he tried to stand up.

The couple told police the two robbers searched the home for money, including the man’s wallet, until the couple began to call out names as if someone else was in the house. The men, reports said, ran off when the couple began to call out the names. No property was taken.

jgoodwin@vindy.com