Boardman police investigate reported assault on ice cream truck driver

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Ice cream usually has people screaming for joy.

It recently had one man screaming in anger, however, according to a victim who says he was attacked by a competing ice cream truck driver.

The victim reported to police that, after he drove his ice cream truck through a township neighborhood this past weekend, a competing ice cream salesman assaulted him.

Police responded to the area of Southern Boulevard and Erskine Avenue about 7:45 p.m. Saturday, according to a police report, where the victim told police about the assault that he believes was related to business.

He saw another ice cream truck serving customers on Arlene Avenue earlier that evening, he told police. The victim waited on some customers at the other end of the street, then drove to Erskine Avenue, where the other truck – described as a “yellow box truck” – followed him and cut him off, he reported.

That person then reportedly got out of the truck, leading the victim to get out of his own vehicle. He said he was then hit on the neck.

“[The suspect] then pushed [the victim] to the ground and threatened to put him in the hospital,” the police report reads, adding that the suspect then fled.

The victim “suspects that the male was upset because he believes that he may have stolen his customers,” the report reads.

A witness at the scene told police that although he did not see the altercation, he did see the suspect and believes he was the aggressor.

The victim declined to comment on the incident. Township police are investigating.