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Police need help of citizens to end crime
YOUNGSTOWN
A 22-year-old woman was attacked, beaten and robbed of her car at an East Side convenience store, and no one called police to report the incident until it was over.
According to police reports, Brittany Littlejohn was at the Speed Check gas station on McGuffey Road at 12:30 a.m. last Thursday when 19-year-old Demetria Robbins and another woman came in and accused her of breaking someone’s car windows.
Reports say Robbins pulled Littlejohn by her shoulder and began punching her in the face and about the body. Littlejohn ultimately was knocked to the ground inside the store.
Littlejohn later told police that as she got off the ground a male inside the store said one of the women was driving off with Littlejohn’s 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix.
Police checked the area for the stolen car and the attack was captured on the store video surveillance system, but police Chief Rod Foley questions why no one inside the store thought to call police as the attack took place.
Foley said there were several people visible on the video inside the store at the time of the attack, but no one immediately called for police assistance.
Foley said police need the help of citizens to put an end to crimes like the gas station assault.
“We are patrolling the neighborhoods, but the people have to live in these communities, and they just can’t be apathetic to these things,” he said. “We are trying to make as many arrests as we can but the community has to say ‘enough is enough.’”
Robbins is been charged with felony theft of a motor vehicle and misdemeanor assault. There has been a warrant issued for her arrest.
Littlejohn has had previous issues with law enforcement.
She was one of six women charged in connection with the beating of Youngstown police officer Bridget Quinn during a fight on the South Side in March 2011.
Quinn responded to the call and was injured breaking up the fight.
One woman is serving a year in prison for assaulting the officer. Another woman has been sentenced to probation and charges are still pending against three of the women.
Littlejohn is set to enter into a plea agreement with prosecutors April 3 for her role in the fight.