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Cops: Youngstown couple accepts Facebook fight challenge
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Reports say a woman who was arrested with her husband for accepting an online challenge for a fight told police early Tuesday she felt she had no choice but to respond.
David Cotton, 25, and his wife, Lakeisha Cotton, 22, both of Youngstown, are in the Mahoning County jail on aggravated burglary charges after they were arrested about 12:40 a.m. Tuesday at a West Boston Avenue apartment.
Lakeisha Cotton also faces warrants for failure to appear in municipal court on driving under suspension and other traffic charges from 2011.
Police were called to the apartment for a report of unspecified trouble. When they arrived, they saw two women attacking each other, reports said.
Two women who were inside the apartment said the Cottons came there to fight, after one of the women challenged Lakeisha Cotton in a Facebook message to a fight.
The women said when the Cottons arrived, they pounded on the door, but the door was locked, and the women in the apartment would not let them inside.
Reports said the Cottons then went outside, and Lakeisha Cotton slid a screen window open and kicked the storm window until the locks popped free. She then opened the window for her husband, who crawled inside, unlocked the door for his wife and then let her inside the home.
Once Lakeisha got inside she began fighting the woman who challenged her, reports said.
Adam Earnheardt, who heads up the Department of Communication at Youngstown State University and studies social media, said it is rare for adults to follow through on online threats in person, although he added that it is not unheard of for teenagers to do it.
“This is highly unusual,” Earnheardt said.
Earnheardt also said that one of the reasons police departments across the country are devoting more resources to social media is so they can track potential crimes or confrontations that come from online disputes.
But actually following through is something that does not happen often, he added.
“It’s like the guy at the bar who says to the other guy, ‘Let’s take this outside,’” Earnheardt said.
City Prosecutor Dana Lantz said that her office has been seeing more and more cases stemming from online disputes.
“It used to be they would just leave a voice mail,” Lantz said. “Now they just type it and don’t think twice before they send it into the ozone.”
Police took the couple into custody and transported them to the jail in separate cruisers.
Reports said that while she was being taken to the jail, Lakeisha Cotton told an officer that she was upset because she was called out on Facebook to fight, so she felt she had no choice but to go to the apartment and fight.
Reports said she also told the officers that she was mad because the woman she went to fight would not open up the door and instead just looked out the window at her, which is why she decided to break the window to get inside.