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Armed robberies probed
By John W. GOODWIN JR.
YOUNGSTOWN
Police are investigating three armed robberies in various parts of the city, one that included the shooting of a 24-year-old Austintown man.
The Austintown man remains in stable condition St. Elizabeth Health Center after the Tuesday afternoon shooting, and police still are looking for the two men believed to have participated in the robbery.
The man told police he went to a bakery in the 1500 block of Mahoning Avenue on the West Side about 4:30 p.m. with two friends. The man said he was stopped outside the store by a man asking for change. The victim said he had $120 in his hand and was going to give the man change but noticed the stranger had bloodied knuckles.
The victim told police the stranger said a car fell on his knuckles then grabbed the money and began walking away toward a red SUV. The victim said he confronted the man, and a struggle took place before the man pulled out a gun and shot him in the groin.
The thief then jumped into the SUV and left with another man driving.
A 21-year-old Lexington Avenue woman told police she was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom with a friend just before 11 a.m. Tuesday when she heard loud banging on her back door. The banging was followed by the sound of a brick coming through the North Side home’s window.
The woman told police she locked herself in her bedroom as she could hear the intruders going through her home. The couple eventually started screaming and could hear the intruders running out the back door.
Witnesses told officers they noticed two people run from the house carrying a video-game system.
Police say four people were robbed on the city’s South Side during an admitted drug deal.
A 22-year-old Lisbon man told officers that he and a 22-year-old female friend from East Liverpool had gone to the 500 block of West Judson to purchase marijuana just after 9 p.m. Tuesday.
A masked intruder entered the home while the Lisbon man was making his drug purchase and held a gun on the drug dealer, the dealer’s girlfriend, the East Liverpool woman and Lisbon man, demanding cash, according to police.
The intruder grabbed cash, cell phones, a purse and an Xbox 360 game console that belonged to the homeowner. He then ordered the two women to pull down their pants. He didn’t touch them and then ran from the home.