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Liberty store owners say police aren’t investigating crimes
LIBERTY
Business owners who have stores on Belmont Avenue said police are not doing enough to protect their stores or investigate crimes there.
At three of their stores within a half-mile stretch, they say, there have been nine break-ins.
Dan Qutail, who owns a BP station at the corner of Belmont and Gypsy Lane, said he gave video surveillance tapes to the police after that store was broken into five times. The first break-in there was in July. The others were in October, and the last was Sunday. In all the break-ins, windows were smashed. In one, which occurred Oct. 27, a cargo van was backed up through the front windows and an ATM machine was dragged out.
At Belmont Wireless, owned by Nadil Aburahma, there have been three break-ins. There also was one at the Hookah Cafe, which he owns. The first one at Belmont Wireless was in November 2013. There have been two more there in recent months, Aburahma said Friday morning.
One of those break-ins had a possible tie to Larry McDonald, the man accused in the killing of Abdullah Nagi Mahdi, 29, who died after a shootout during a robbery at his store on Youngstown’s South Side on Wednesday.
Aburahma said McDonald appeared in the background of a photo taken at a booth at Eastwood Mall where someone had tried to sell some of the store’s stolen phones after the second break-in about five months ago. McDonald is known to Aburahma and his son because McDonald had helped out the son at the store, he said.
A detective was given that photo, Aburahma said.
Aburahma said he wants to know why police didn’t follow up on contacting McDonald for questioning in the case of the stolen phones.
They were still in shock over the death of Mahdi, who was their good friend. They would be attending his funeral in two hours as they sat down to talk to The Vindicator at one of Aburahma’s businesses in the township. They are frustrated, they said, at what they believe is a lack of attention to an area in the township that needs it the most — the section closest to Youngstown.
“They don’t concentrate on anything after Goldie Road,” said Qutail. “It’s like it’s ‘no man’s land.’”
He said he realizes crime is everywhere. “But you get comfort knowing police are doing something about it,” he said. “We don’t have that. We believe the opposite.”
Qutail said that in the first break-in at his BP station in July, video revealed a man with a distinctive red mohawk. He said that was turned over to police. Not long after the break-in, a manager at one of his other stores on Belmont saw the same man there. She wrote down the license number of his car. They gave that number to police, Qutail said. He believes nothing was done.
He said that while police made an arrest at a recent robbery at his Shell Express Mart on Logan Avenue at Church Hill Road, “we solved that for them.”
He said the store got them video, recognized the robber and pointed them to where the robber lived at apartments across the street. Police still did not recover the cash he stole, they said.
Store owners said they don’t blame the patrol officers but rather the administration, including Chief Richard Tisone, and the township trustees.
Tisone could not be reached to comment Friday.
Township Trustee Chairman Jason Rubin said he is familiar with the complaints, because the store owners have discussed the issue with him.
“We’re working on it,” he said.
He said he has talked with Tisone.
“We talked briefly. He knows we need more security, more patrols.”
Rubin said he was in favor of adding reserve officers to the police department and also part-time officers, but he was “voted out.”
He said the police union was not in favor of either. Reserve officers would be of no cost to the township, he said.
The township has 16 full-time officers.
Rubin said there are two police officers and one supervisor on the night shift. Reserve officers would help that situation.
Rubin said he also spoke with Tisone about the pace of the investigations “after the first couple of break-ins” but he would not comment on what was said.