Police find loaded handgun after reckless driver chase

Staff report

youngstown

Police looking for a reckless driver on the West Side about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday found a loaded .40-caliber handgun in the vehicle.

Police were called to a parking lot at Mahoning Avenue and Belle Vista for an SUV that was driving the wrong way in traffic, with heavy damage to its front end and smoke coming from under the hood.

Police found the SUV on Mahoning Avenue near Portland Avenue, and it zig-zagged through traffic when they tried to pull it over.

The SUV pulled into a driveway on North Richview Avenue and the driver, Michael Pippins, 27, ran into the basement. Officers followed him there and arrested him, but he refused to allow himself to be taken up the stairs.

The gun was found underneath an airbag in the SUV with a 15-round clip. Police later learned he had hit a utility pole on North Evanston Avenue, shearing it in half, and kept going, reports said.

He was placed in the Mahoning County jail on several charges and was arraigned in municipal court on the misdemeanor charges of hit-and-run, fleeing and eluding, resisting arrest and the felony count of having weapons while under disability. His bond was set at $15,000.