43
Weekend robberies probed
YOUNGSTOWN
Police are investigating several robberies that took place in the city over the weekend.
Police were flagged down late Sunday at Midlothian Boulevard and Market Street on the South Side by a 21-year-old Boardman man who told police he had been robbed.
The victim told police he had been inside a convenience store on that corner standing at the cash register when he was surrounded by four men demanding he hand over all his valuables or be beaten. The men went through his pockets and removed $20 before running out of the store.
Police were called to a parking lot on East Federal Street downtown about 7:30 p.m. Saturday for a robbery at gunpoint.
According to police, a 52-year-old Boardman man parked in a parking lot on East Federal and got out of his car facing a man holding a gun and demanding he hand over all his valuables. The man said he told the thief he had nothing to give. A fight between the men started when the victim pushed the gun away.
The man told police he fought with the thief for several minutes until he was hit in the head with a hard object. Police responding to the scene found pieces of the gun on the ground where the man had been hit. Those pieces were collected as evidence.
The would-be thief did not take any of the man’s property.
Police were called to the parking lot of a bar in the 1600 block of Mahoning Avenue on the West Side just before 7 p.m. Friday for an attempted robbery and assault.
According to police, a 22-year-old Austintown man pulled into the parking lot and was blocked in by a red Dodge and a silver Pontiac. One of the men driving one of the cars slapped the victim and ordered him to empty his pockets and get on the ground. About six men began kicking and hitting the victim as he was on the ground.
The attackers did not take any property from the victim.