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Police probe crimes involving guns
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
YOUNGSTOWN
City police are investigating several crimes involving guns that occurred over the weekend.
According to police, a girl, 13, and a boy, 14, both residents of the West Side, called police after being threatened by a teenage boy with a gun Sunday evening in the Borts Pool area.
Police went to the area around the pool and found a group of juveniles who fit the description playing basketball. Officers searched them but did not find any weapons.
Officers did find a Transformers bookbag not far from the area containing a 9mm handgun, girl’s blue jeans, a jacket and a cell phone. The items were taken to the evidence room at the police station.
The boy and girl told police they were sitting in the park area near the pool when a teenage boy approached them, pulled out a handgun and asked, “Where is my forty?” The boy and girl ran from the park and called police.
Police also were called to the Uptown area of the South Side early Sunday to investigate shots fired in the area. Officers first believed someone had been shot just before 3 a.m. in the area but later realized the shots had all been fired into parked cars.
According to police reports, four cars were found with bullet holes.
Police found seven shell casings in a parking lot at 2841 Market St. and six shell casings a short distance away across the street to the east. Police believe two people were shooting at one another across the street but hit parked cars.
Police reports say no witnesses were willing to come forward and speak to police.
Police also are investigating a shooting on the city’s South Side that sent an apparent stray bullet into the home of a 63-year-old South Avenue man.
The man said he was sleeping in bed Friday when he heard several gunshots outside his home. The man and police found one bullet hole in the house and recovered the bullet from inside the wall. The man said he believes nearby residents were the target of the shooting, but a stray bullet hit his home.