Coordinated crackdown on crime in Warren nets 31 arrests, 10 citations

31 arrested, 10 cited in coordinated blitz

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Police Chief Tim Bowers is thankful for the help coming from a federal grant, a countywide warrant sweep and a federal task force that all worked in Warren over the weekend.

The warrant sweep, headed by the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department and assisted by Warren police officers, netted 18 arrests stemming from Warren Municipal Court warrants from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, plus about 12 more issued by courts elsewhere in the county.

Meanwhile, about eight law enforcement officers who are part of the U.S. Marshal’s Violent Fugitive Task Force assisted Warren police at about 3 a.m. Saturday in arresting a man — Damien Russ of Warren — with a gun at the Powerhouse Bar & Grill on Mahoning Avenue Northwest.

Warren officers also spent four hours in the North Park Avenue-Atlantic Street Northeast area late Friday conducting zero-tolerance enforcement with money from the federal Weed and Seed grant.

That effort resulted in some 10 citations for walking in the roadway, warrants and other offenses.

Lt. Eric Merkel, who was part of the Weed-and-Seed effort, said officers routinely ask people who are walking in the roadway to use the sidewalk, but this time citations were written instead.

Such zero-tolerance efforts, which are conducted at various times and locations in the city’s Weed-and-Seed areas, can reduce prostitution and drug dealing, Merkel said.

Bowers said he believes the U.S. Attorney’s office and U.S. Marshal’s Service are going to continue to help Warren combat crime throughout the summer.

Warren is among the areas served by the Violence: Gun Reduction and Interdiction Program that U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven Dettelbach announced last week.

The program is largely focused on increased law- enforcement presence, plus using technology to target specific crime hot spots, identifying the most dangerous repeat offenders and conducting long-term investigations of criminals and gangs.

It was important that V-GRIP was extended to Warren because the last time it was conducted — in Youngstown in 2003 — many of the criminals simply moved their activities to Warren, Bowers said.

U.S. Marshal Bill Boldin and about seven other members of the U.S. Marshal’s Violent Fugitive Task Force went to the Powerhouse, 999 Mahoning Ave. NW, to assist Warren police with a large fight at about 3 a.m. Saturday.

Boldin observed Damien Russ, 34 of Second Street, walking out of the bar, thought Boldin was acting nervously and asked him if everything was OK.

Russ swung his left arm at Boldin, knocking Boldin backward, a Warren police report said. Boldin and another officer noticed something shiny — later identified as a handgun — in Russ’ waist band as Russ ran away.

Russ and the handgun were later found near each other, and Russ was arrested.

Russ, who has been charged with crimes 16 times in Warren Municipal Court since 1995, pleaded innocent Monday in Warren Municipal Court to being a felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon.

Russ remains in Trumbull County jail in lieu of $30,000 bond and returns to court July 19.