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Five teens arrested in early morning BB gun assault, theft in Warren
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Five teenagers from Warren and Niles were taken into custody Tuesday after police reports said they robbed, assaulted and shot a 20-year-old pedestrian on Mahoning Avenue with a BB gun, causing a head injury.
The 18-year-old, Sa’Dierra Lowery of Genesee Street in Warren, was arraigned in Warren Municipal Court, where bond was set at $25,000, and a not-guilty plea was entered on a charge of aggravated robbery.
The others, all under 18, were taken to the Trumbull Juvenile Justice Center. They are two 16-year-old girls, one from Niles and one from Warren; and boys 16 and 14. The Warren girl and two Warren boys all have the same address on Oak Street Southwest. All are charged with aggravated robbery, but the 16-year-old Warren girl is also charged with theft.
The victim, of Niles, was taken to St. Joseph Health Center, where he was scheduled for surgery to remove the BB from his sinus cavity, Warren police said. It entered the sinus cavity through his eye, police said.
Police were alerted at 4:24 a.m. by the manager of the Giant Eagle on Mahoning Avenue who said one of a group of juveniles left the store without paying for a $25 bottle of liquor.
The manager said the juveniles were heading south on Mahoning in a dark car.
A police officer was heading north on Mahoning when he passed a Hyundai with five people inside, and he stopped the vehicle at Mahoning and Comstock avenues.
Inside the car, the officer spotted two handguns, later determined to be BB guns, in the map pocket. A third BB gun was found in a purse. A fourth also was found, but reports don’t indicate where.
When other officers arrived, they indicated that the vehicle may have been involved in a robbery at Mahoning and Dunstan Drive just north of there moments earlier.
The robbery victim said he was walking home when he was struck in the face and back by people shooting BB guns at him from a silver Hyundai with five people in it.
Then two people came up behind him. One put a gun to his face and the other struck him in the back of the head. They took his cell - phone and left.
One of the males admitted that he took the liquor and said the other male gave him a cellphone — but he didn’t know where it had come from. The phone was identified as being from the victim.