Crash kills 1, injures 1

Crash kills 1, injures 1

BROOKFIELD

A two-vehicle crash Monday at the intersection of state Routes 7 and 82 left one woman dead and another in critical condition.

Carmen L. Maldonado-Iraq, 73, of Sharon, Pa., was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Maldonado-Iraq was a passenger in a 2008 Hummer H3 driven by Fadia Iraq, 32, also of Sharon.

Fadia Iraq suffered serious injuries and was in critical condition at St. Elizabeth Health Center.

The patrol said Jessica Shaffer, 26, of Brookfield did not stop for a red light. Shaffer was traveling westbound on Route 82 when her 2008 Jeep Liberty struck the Hummer’s passenger side. She was treated at the scene.

Fire kills man, woman

GROVE CITY, Pa.

A man and a woman died in an early-morning fire here, but authorities are not releasing their names pending positive identification and family notification.

Borough police and firefighters responded at 3:12 a.m. Monday to the blaze, which caused substantial damage to 432 McConnell St., where the fire erupted. The cause of the fire is undetermined, borough police said. The Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating.

Man is fraud victim

Girard

A Girard man was instructed to wire money by a caller claiming to be a federal-government official.

A police report says the caller told the victim that he had won $525,000 in a prize drawing and instructed the victim he had to pay 1 percent of the winnings for insurance. That was negotiated to $1,600 when the victim said he couldn’t pay that much. The victim was told to wire the money to an account in Costa Rica, which he did.

The victim contacted Western Union later when he realized that the call was fraudulent. Western Union said it was not possible to cancel the transaction because the other party already had collected the funds.

New stun guns

CAMPBELL

Police are equipped with the latest-model electronic stun guns, thanks to a U.S. Department of Justice Byrne Grant and supplementary funding from the city.

Each Taser X2, plus the holster and cartridges, costs about $1,500, and the department ordered 14 of them — one for each full-time officer, said Detective Sgt. John Rusnak.

The $5,000 grant covered about one-third of the cost, and city council agreed to cover the remaining expenses. The new dual-cartridge weapons arrived last week.

Accused of theft

boardman

Police arrested a Boardman woman Friday after she was accused of stealing from her employer. When police arrived at the Kmart store on U.S. Route 224, they were told Patricia Keel, 46, had stolen $1,400 in various merchandise over two years, according to a report.

The woman was detained at the store and later placed under arrest by police. The woman was fired from Kmart, posted bond and is expected to be arraigned in Mahoning County Area Court here today.

Facing drug charges

boardman

Police charged a Youngstown woman with abusing harmful intoxicants after officers discovered her “huffing” in the Boardman Walmart parking lot Saturday night.

Crystal Steinbeck, 27, was sitting in a vehicle and appeared to be “in a dazed state” when police arrived. When police asked her what she was doing, she said she was “getting high,” according to a report. Huffing is inhaling toxic gases.

Police discovered and removed a half-empty can of compressed air. She was arrested and later told police she had gotten into an argument and relapsed by huffing. She added she had been a heroin user in the past, according to a report.

The woman was released on a summons and is scheduled to be arraigned in Mahoning County Area Court here today.

Gear, tools stolen

girard

Scrap metal and equipment with a value of nearly $28,000 was stolen from a recycling business on Bundy Lane.

An employee for LAS Recycling told police Saturday the building had been broken into at least three times over the course of last week. According to police reports, welding equipment and various tools had been stolen.

Workers’ comp fraud

WARREN

A judge placed Angelo Pizzurro, 54, one of the two owners of Brothers Pizza, 144 S. High St., Cortland, on two years’ probation for committing workers’ compensation fraud.

He received his sentence Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court after pleading guilty earlier to misdemeanor workers’ compensation fraud.

Prosecutors say Pizzurro and his wife, Deanna Pizzurro, 47, individually and as owners of the restaurant, failed to secure or maintain workers’ compensation coverage as required by Ohio law from January 2007 through June 2012. The value of the premiums and assessments not paid is about $6,000.

The Pizzurros are paying $6,000 in restitution. Deanna Pizzurro was sentenced last week to a $100 fine.

Speaker at meeting

Youngstown

The Garden District Neighborhood Association meets at 6:30 p.m. today at Fellows Riverside Gardens in Mill Creek Park, 123 McKinley Ave. Guest speaker is William “Guy” Burney, coordinator of the city’s Community Initiative to Reduce Violence.

Man hits car with bat

Liberty

A man driving a black Ford Fusion hit the driver’s-side window of a parked car with a baseball bat about 6 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of Sicilians Tanning Salon.

The female driver of the car that was hit, who was in the car during the incident, said the Ford had been tailgating her down state Route 193 and followed her to the parking lot. The car window did not break, but police reports said there were two marks on the window where the bat had connected. A witness told police that the man said: “You’ll think next time you do something like that. You’ll run into someone like me” as he hit the car.