Driver flees cop to avoid jail and visit his mom

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports say a man who refused to pull over for an officer early Wednesday told police he did not pull over because he knew he would be going to jail and he wanted to visit his mother.

An officer on patrol on the East Side spotted a car he thought was stolen in a McGuffey Road parking lot at about 2:30 a.m. and the car drove away when the officer pulled into the lot and would not stop as it traveled along Albert Street, reports said. The officer checked the plates as he followed the car and found it was stolen, reports said.

The car never went over 20 miles per hour but would not pull over until it stopped in a vacant lot on Berkley Avenue, reports said. The driver, 51-year-old Lawrence Mitchum, was arrested on charges of theft of a motor vehicle, driving under suspension and a warrant from Youngstown State University Police Department for cocaine possession. A passenger was released, reports said.