Two arrested hours apart in robbery

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Police arrested two suspects in a West Side robbery Sunday hours apart at a North Side home.

Police were on the lookout after a robbery at a Kirk Road home and were told by the victims that the three men who robbed them where heading to a home in the 200 block of Norwood Avenue, reports said.

Police spotted a car about 3:35 p.m. that matched the description of the one used in the robbery. The car pulled into the driveway of the home on Norwood Avenue, and the passenger ran away. The driver, Clifford James Cross, 23, of Norwood Avenue, stayed in the car, reports said.

When police went to get him out of the car they found a loaded 9mm Sig Sauer semiautomatic handgun that was reported stolen from Pennsylvania in 2006, reports said.

Reports said witnesses at the home said the other man was Khaleb Young Bonner, 24, also of Norwood Avenue, but he managed to elude police.

One of the victims from the robbery was driven to the home and identified Cross as one of the men who robbed them. He was arrested on charges of aggravated robbery, improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, being a felon in possession of a firearm and receiving stolen property.

Officers returned to the home at 5:20 p.m. after they received reports that Bonner was there. As they pulled up Bonner ran through the backyard and through several other yards, reports said. He also tried to force his way into the back door of a nearby vacant home but could not get inside, reports said.

He threw himself in front of a cruiser in the 200 block of Fairgreen Avenue and was caught there, reports said. He claimed he was run over but reports said he was treated at St. Elizabeth Health Center for cuts and scrapes that came from falling on concrete as he ran from police.

Two officers who were chasing him also had to be taken to St. Elizabeth for cuts and puncture wounds they received during the foot chase.

Bonner is charged with aggravated robbery and obstructing justice.

Both men are in the Mahoning County jail as the case still is being investigated, said City Prosecutor Dana Lantz.