Metro digest || Adults escape fire with 2-year-old

Adults escape fire with 2-year-old

SALEM

No one was injured in a fire that began at 5:13 a.m. Wednesday in a rented house at 521 Woodland Ave. and caused an estimated $48,000 in damage.

The renter, Rochelle Jiovani, was upstairs and had been playing with her 2-year-old child, who was placed in a crib.

Her brother-in-law, Paul Scott, was sleeping on a couch downstairs. He woke up, smelled smoke and saw fire coming through the ceiling. He went up and got the baby, and all left the house.

The property is owned by Roy Brown of Salem and is insured. The fire department estimated there was $30,000 damage to the house and $18,000 damage to the contents. The fire department does not believe the cause was suspicious.

Charged in shooting

WARREN

Warren police say Brian K. Jones, 34, of Central Parkway Southeast shot a 34-year-old Anderson Avenue Northeast man in the foot late Tuesday at Jones’ house.

Jones pleaded innocent to felonious assault in Warren Municipal Court Wednesday. He is being held in the Trumbull County jail in lieu of $15,000 bond.

Police responded to Jones’ house just before midnight and found the victim; Jones; a 17-year-old girl from Lincoln Avenue, Niles, who appeared to be impaired by alcohol and/or drugs; and a shotgun.

Shooting probed

YOUNGSTOWN

Police are trying to determine how, why and where a 27-year-old Struthers man was shot in the leg this week.

According to police reports, the Creed Street man arrived at St. Elizabeth Health Center late Tuesday with a gunshot wound to his leg just above the knee. The man told police he was walking along Oak Street when he heard four to five gunshots and realized he had been shot.

The man told police he limped to a nearby familiar house and was taken to the hospital.

Police noted that a juvenile who rode to the hospital with the victim told a different story. The juvenile told police he and the victim were in an SUV on Jackson Street when a vehicle pulled beside them and shots rang out.

The juvenile told police he and the victim abandoned the SUV and found a ride to the hospital.

Man killed in crash

LISBON

The Lisbon Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a Wednesday afternoon car accident in Columbiana County that killed a 22-year-old Boardman man.

According to police, Matthew Finkel, 22, of Boardman, was driving a 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe westbound on state Route 62 in Perry Township and turned left at Ellsworth Avenue into the path of a 53-year-old Pennsylvania man driving a semi truck.

Finkel was taken to Salem Hospital and was pronounced dead. The driver of the semi suffered minor injuries.

Consumer complaints

COLUMBUS (AP)

Ohio’s departing attorney general says his office has received a record number of consumer complaints this year, filed by more than 31,000 people.

Attorney General Richard Cordray says in a statement that motor vehicles were the No. 1 reason for complaints, followed by financial services.

Cordray says issues involving mortgages surged in 2010, making them the fifth- most-common source of complaints, up from No. 6 last year. He says otherwise, the list remained largely consistent.

The attorney general says his office responded with 42 lawsuits that resulted in more than $7.6 million in consumer restitution and other relief.

Cordray, a Democrat, lost his re-election bid and is taking on a new post with the Obama administration.