Two arrested after West Side crash, chase

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police arrested two Ridgelawn Avenue men after reports of a crash with gunfire about 9:10 p.m. Sunday on the lower West Side.

Officers responding found an SUV crashed into a utility pole at Waverly and Greenwood avenues.

The driver of the SUV told police he was being chased by a car driven by William Fox, 21, of Ridgelawn Avenue and that Michael Fox, 23, also of Ridgelawn Avenue, who was in another car, fired a gun at him.

Reports said Michael Fox refused to allow officers to search the car he was driving for a gun, but because that car smelled heavily of burnt marijuana, police took him out of the car and searched it.

Underneath a floor mat on the driver’s side, police found a .40-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol. Michael Fox was arrested on a charge of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle.

The victim said he had been having trouble with William Fox. He spotted William Fox in a car at a gas station at the corner of North Belle Vista Avenue and Mahoning Avenue, and when he left to get away from him, William Fox followed and tried to run him off the road.

The car William Fox was in had crashed into a fence near the victim’s car, reports said. He was arrested on a charge of felonious assault.

Both Michael and William Fox were taken to the Mahoning County jail.