Cops: Pair chase women down in spat over food stamp card

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police arrested two women on aggravated-robbery charges early Thursday after reports said they chased down two other women at a South Side bar they argued with earlier over a food-stamp card.

Monica Sly, 31, of West Chalmers Avenue, and Elizabeth Green, 39, of John Street, are in the Mahoning County jail and are expected to be arraigned today in municipal court.

Reports said police were called about 2:35 a.m. by a woman who said she was chasing a van with two people inside who beat her and took her purse at the Southern Tavern on Glenwood Avenue.

The woman said she was following the van so she could keep track of it for police, reports said.

Police stopped both vehicles on the Interstate 680 south exit for Market Street, reports said.

The victim told police she was at a North Side bar with Sly’s cousin, and Sly and her cousin argued over a food-stamp card that had not been returned. The ensuing argument resulted in Sly and her cousin being kicked out of that bar.

The victim and Sly’s cousin then went to the Southern Tavern. Sly called her cousin and said she wanted to fight the victim because the victim was “talking trash about her,” reports said.

When the victim walked out of the bar, Sly and Green were waiting for her. Sly ran up to the victim as holding a box cutter, reports said. Sly grabbed the victim’s hair, punched her several times and dragged her into the street by her hair. Green yelled for Sly to take the victim’s purse out of her car, which reports said Sly did.

Police found the victim’s purse in the van, reports said. Reports said officers went back to the Southern Tavern and could not find the box cutter, but they photographed drops of blood in the parking lot and in the street.