Man indicted in theft from Tractor Supply, chase

Staff report

WARREN

A Trumbull County grand jury indicted Christopher M. Cretella, 56, of Florencedale Avenue in Youngstown and East Broadway Street in Girard, on charges in a May 9 theft at Tractor Supply on Elm Road in Howland Township.

Cretella faces charges of aggravated robbery, felonious assault and failure to comply with the orders of a police officer.

The victim of the felonious assault was listed as a Howland police officer.

Cretella was charged after an officer sitting in the store parking lot in an unmarked police car saw Cretella putting a piece of equipment from in front of the store in the back of his car at 6:10 a.m.

The security alarm also sounded, apparently because a security cable holding the equipment had been cut.

The officer drove toward Cretella, but Cretella also drove toward the officer, hitting his car in the front fender, then backed up and hit the police car again and drove off.

The officer pursued the vehicle onto the state Route 82 bypass east at a speed of about 90 miles per hour and into Vienna Township, where the car got away.

A trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol observed a vehicle matching the escaped car at 7:10 a.m. on Collar Price Road in Brookfield Township and arrested Cretella in it.

Police also talked to a repairman later who said he found a new rotary tiller alongside Scoville North Road in Vienna Township at 6:45 a.m. that day.