YPD finds loaded handgun while checking out truck

July 28, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Police found a loaded handgun Sunday afternoon after a man parked a pickup truck in the middle of the street with the door wide open.

Officer Rick Baldwin was called to a home in the 400 block of West Judson Avenue about 1:10 p.m. to check on the vehicle, and when he got there, a woman told him a man got out of the truck with a dog and began walking on the street.

Reports said another truck pulled into a nearby driveway and the driver, later identified as Kenneth Smith, 30, of Leetonia, got out of the driver’s seat carrying a red gift bag and went to get a dog out of the bed of the truck, then he reached down as if he were trying to hide something.

Reports said Smith was also the driver of the truck that was left in the street with the door open. Reports said Smith told police he used to live in the neighborhood and was back to visit friends.

When Smith went to move the first truck, reports said officers noticed the red bag he had been carrying lying on the ground next to a nearby tree. As Smith drove away Baldwin looked in the bag and found a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun loaded with 16 rounds, reports said.

Other officers arrived and began searching for the truck and found Smith on Firnley Avenue, walking his dog. Reports said he was told to give the dog to a nearby friend and was then told he was being arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.

Reports said Smith refused to put his hands behind his back and kept them on the roof of a cruiser until officers were able to pry them loose and get him handcuffed. Reports said Smith also had a crinkled up cigarette pack in one of his hands and when police finally were able to take it from him, they found a piece of crack cocaine and a small amount of heroin, reports said.

Smith also told police he had a needle in his pants pocket, which officers were able to retrieve.

As police tried to walk Smith to a cruiser, reports said he tried to run away twice but was stopped both times, After he was placed in a cruiser, he complained of not feeling well, and officers said they would call an ambulance for him. He then managed to get out of the cruiser, bumped an officer and then started running. After about a half block he was stunned with an electronic stun weapon after he refused several orders to stop, reports said. On the ground he continued to kick and struggle until officers could get him under control.

Smith was taken first to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital before being booked into the Mahoning County jail on charges of driving under suspension, resisting arrest, escape, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of drugs/heroin, possession of drugs/cocaine and a warrant for failure to appear in municipal court.

At his arraignment Monday in municipal court, Smith denied the gun police found was his but city Prosecutor Dana Lantz was just as adamant that the gun in the bag was in his possession.

“He possessed it, your honor,” Lantz said. “The officer saw him hold it, carry it and drop it.” Smith again denied he ever had the bag.

“There was no way he saw me holding it,” Smith said. “That’s why I got irritated.”

Magistrate Anthony Sertick set Smith’s bond at $15,000.