METRO DIGEST || Woman dies in crash

Woman dies in crash

NEW CASTLE, Pa.

Jennifer Lynn Bryant, 29, of 2019 Rear Martha St., New Castle, was pronounced dead at the scene of a traffic accident in Neshannock Township at 2:30 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 376 West near the Mitchell Road exit in Lawrence County.

She was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Robert Wayne Hoon, 28, of the same address. The vehicle ran off the right side of the road, began to spin, crossed the road, struck a guardrail, then rolled over several times.

Hoon and Bryant were ejected. Hoon was taken to Jameson Memorial Hospital, then transferred to UPMC in Pittsburgh. Two children, a 4-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy, were treated at Jameson.

Teacher accused

YOUNGSTOWN

A South Lakeview Avenue woman said her 11-year-old son was choked by a substitute teacher at Rayen Early College Middle School. Johneice Green filed a police report about the incident. The boy wrote in a statement to police that the teacher told him his writing was too big and then choked him. Green said she was told by school-district officials that the substitute no longer will be used. Superintendent Connie Hathorn couldn’t be reached. The substitute wrote in her police statement that the boy was talking loudly and not doing his work. She told him to quiet down, and when he came to the front of her desk, she pulled him by the front of his shirt.

Snow accidents

MERCER

Pennsylvania State Police reported numerous minor accidents on Interstate 80 and county roads after snow began falling Thursday night, but none was serious.

Importuning charges

SMITH

Police arrested Christopher Todd Woolf, 45, of South Range Road, Salem, on two fifth-degree felony charges of importuning and soliciting a minor; and one count of failure to comply to a signal by a police officer, one count of carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest, all misdemeanors.

Police said Woolf believed he was meeting a 15-year-old female at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday but was met by police instead. Woolf had first sent the girl mundane text messages then began sending texts of a graphic and sexual nature. The girl gave the phone to her mother, who contacted police. Wolf, who posted bond, is to be arraigned.

GOP meeting

NILES

The Trumbull County Republican Party will have its monthly breakfast meeting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in Eastwood Mall’s Community Room.

Baby shower set

YOUNGSTOWN

Associated Neighborhood Centers will host its 5th annual City-Wide Baby Shower from 3 to 5 p.m. Jan. 17 at McGuffey Centre, Jacobs Road.

Expectant and new mothers of children up to age 5 are invited. Various organizations have been invited to participate again as center representatives salute Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of communities coming together to affect the lives of families. To participate, contact the center by Monday at 330-744-4377.