New Middletown teen jailed in Southern Park Mall purse-snatching
Staff report
BOARDMAN
A New Middletown man is in Mahoning County jail after Boardman police arrested him Tuesday, after a woman accused him of snatching her purse in the Southern Park Mall parking lot.
Jarrett Nicholas Drajic, 19, of Struthers Road is facing a robbery charge with attempt to inflict or threaten serious injury or physical harm to another, a second-degree felony.
Boardman police were dispatched to the parking lot near Dillard’s department store about 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Mall security assisted a 72-year-old female who was hurt during the incident in which the man took her purse.
The male, identified as Drajic, fled in a burgundy Ford sedan and traveled north on California Avenue toward U.S. Route 224 after the robbery.
The Boardman Fire Department and Lane LifeTrans medics helped the victim, who was on the ground in the parking lot, crying.
A mall security officer told police he saw a man assault the woman and steal her purse.
Another witness also saw a man take the woman’s purse as she came out of Dillard’s.
The victim had a laceration to her left knee, elbow and possibly a head/neck injury. She was transported to St. Elizabeth Health Center. She was able to give a complete description of the suspect to police.
She also told police she saw the man standing outside the department store, but did not think anything of it, and then he grabbed her purse and swung her around, which caused her to fall face first.
Police were unable to locate the vehicle the suspect got into, but a license-plate number provided by witnesses led police to a house in Springfield Township where Drajic was.
Drajic was arraigned Tuesday morning in Mahoning County Boardman court.