Austintown man arrested with homemade firework covered in residue

By ROBERT CONNELLY

rconnelly@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

A man was arrested in the township early Thursday after authorities found him with a homemade firework.

John D. Lynn, 34, of Idlewood Road, was arrested on a fifth-degree felony charge of dangerous ordnance and was taken to the Mahoning County jail. Lynn will be arraigned in Mahoning County Area Court on Monday, the next scheduled court day in the township.

According to the police report, Austintown Sgt. Christopher Collins was patrolling the lot of Fox Run Apartments, 60 N. Raccoon Road, about 1:30 a.m. Thursday. He wrote in his report that area is “a high-targeted area for criminal activity at night,” such as auto thefts and juvenile offenses.

Collins saw a man in a vehicle who was “moving all around the interior of the vehicle,” and Collins approached the vehicle and talked with the man through an open window of the truck. Lynn first said he was there to visit a friend, and then he said he was there to clean the pool, the police report said. Collins said he detected a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage and slurred speech from Lynn, who said it was a good time to clean the pool since no one would be swimming.

Lynn then said he just wanted to park his truck and walk home. He was then asked by Collins to exit the vehicle and was asked if he had any weapons on him. Lynn said he had a folding knife in his pocket and fireworks. Collins found the knife, two small M-80 fireworks and one large M-100 firework “covered in some type of residue,” the report said.

Austintown Capt. Bryan Kloss said Thursday afternoon that officers were concerned because of the residue on the fireworks, which appeared to be homemade. “They weren’t taking any chances with it,” he said.

The device was turned over to members of the Youngstown Police Bomb Squad, who detonated it at the Austintown Police shooting range.