Youngstown man arrested on discharging-firearms charge

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police arrested a man and charged him with discharging a firearm within city limits after a neighbor’s complaint.

John Young, 58, reportedly fired a shotgun into the dirt in the backyard of his Atkinson Avenue home around 10:30 a.m. Saturday, police said.

Young started an argument with the neighbor over some furniture the neighbor was supposed to give to Young’s sister but didn’t, police said.

The neighbor reported that Young didn’t make sense and accused him of slamming the door in his sister’s face, which never happened.

The neighbor called police after Young threw an M-80 explosive into the neighbor’s yard, then got a shotgun and shot into the ground in his own backyard, police report.

Police went to Young’s house and surrounded it, but Young came out the back door right away. He was arrested then on the firearms charge.

Police went upstairs to check on whether there was anyone else in the house.

They found no one, but did find a 12-gauge shotgun in an upstairs bedroom. In a closet, they found a 5.56- mm assault rifle, their report says. They confiscated the guns as evidence.