Bone-marrow drives

Bone-marrow drives

BOARDMAN

Akron Children’s Hospital is sponsoring two bone-marrow drives at which people can join the Be The Match Registry.

With just a quick cheek swab, residents of the Mahoning Valley can register Friday in the community room of the hospital’s Beeghly campus, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Greater Akron residents can register at Akron Children’s Hospital in Akron at the hospital’s Atrium Lobby between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The cost to add new members to the Be The Match registry during these drives is being underwritten by the Friends of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Akron Children’s Hospital. For more information, call Holly Pupino at 330-543-4360.

Sentenced to prison

YOUNGSTOWN

An East Side man has been sentenced to two years in prison for a Feb. 17 shooting on the city’s East Side. Robert Blackshear drew the sentence Monday from Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Blackshear, 53, of East High Avenue, originally was charged with felonious assault but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault with a firearm specification.

The victim, Dennis Townsend, 43, of Duncan Lane, told police he had a long-running feud with Blackshear, who fired four shots at him, striking him once in his left shoulder in the 1400 block of Woodcrest Avenue. Blackshear will get credit for the 223 days he has been jailed awaiting disposition of his case.

Robbed at gunpoint

youngstown

A city man was robbed by gunpoint after trying to be a good Samaritan.

A tow-truck driver told police he stopped his vehicle Saturday at 7:45 p.m. to help a man lying in the roadway near Steel and First streets, when he was approached by a second male, who put a gun to his head.

The victim reported he turned over $20 to the second suspect when he said, “Don’t look at me. Give me what you got.” Afterward, the first suspect, who was wearing a red bandanna on his face, got up from the street and rode away on a bicycle.

The victim told police he heard the gun malfunction when the trigger was pulled, before the second suspect swore and fled on First Street.

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