METRO DIGEST || Caregiver suspected in woman’s beating

Caregiver suspected in woman’s beating

YOUNGSTOWN

Police say a caregiver may be responsible for injuries a 78-year-old woman suffered in a beating.

Lt. Doug Bobovnyik said officers were called Thursday to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where they were told by family members of the woman that she was beaten in Central Park in New York City. Police, however, found that not to be true.

Bobovnyik said police believe the woman was beaten in her home on Ohio Avenue and may have been beaten by a caregiver.

No arrests have been made, and an investigation is continuing. Bobovnyik said the woman is doing “poorly.”

Assault charges

YOUNGSTOWN

A man arrested Thursday for punching a doctor at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital was also served with a warrant for punching a hospital police officer Sept. 4, 2014.

Julius Riley, 38, of Youngstown, was arraigned in municipal court Friday on two counts of assault and one of resisting arrest. He pleaded not guilty. Magistrate Anthony Sertick set his bond at $12,500.

Reports said Riley punched a doctor in the psychiatric ward at about 7:35 p.m. Thursday. On Sept. 4, he is accused of punching a hospital police officer in the jaw as Riley came into the hospital with an elderly man, and then ignoring commands to stop. Reports said a police hold was placed on him after he was restrained, but there was no explanation as to why he was not taken into custody at that time.

Dog struck

WARREN

A dispute over the correct and incorrect way to manage a dog led to a stabbing Thursday on Lenever Avenue Southwest on Thursday evening. A Lenever Avenue man, 32, was in stable condition at ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital with a nonlife-threatening wound to the side after the 8:42 p.m. incident, police said.

The man said he was “correcting his dog in the yard when a female neighbor walked over and started to yell at him for hitting the dog,” the man said.

The man said he told the woman to leave, but soon an unknown man arrived, and they got into a “heated” discussion, which led to the man stabbing the victim with a razor.

Critical after fight

YOUNGSTOWN

A man went to St. Elizabeth Hospital in critical condition after a fight on Delason Avenue Friday afternoon. Police said the fight broke out around 1 p.m. There was no other information available Friday night.

Drug, weapons charges

BOARDMAN

A Youngstown man faces weapons and drug charges after township police stopped a vehicle in which he was a passenger early Friday.

Jalon Allen, 21, of Midlothian Boulevard, faces a misdemeanor drug-abuse charge and a third-degree felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon. When police stopped the vehicle at Market Street and Judson Avenue, they said Allen appeared to be “very nervous and fidgety.” They then reportedly found a handgun and pills in the vehicle that Allen admitted were his. Allen was taken to the Mahoning County jail pending an appearance Tuesday in Mahoning County Area Court.

Attack over boyfriend

YOUNGSTOWN

A Cleveland Heights woman is in the Mahoning County jail on $5,000 bond after she was arraigned on a burglary charge for entering a Youngstown State University dorm room and attacking a student. Bria Fluker, 21, was arraigned before Magistrate Anthony Sertick. She was arrested by YSU police Wednesday in the attack, which occurred at about 7:55 a.m. April 26.

Reports said Fluker was in the parking lot with another resident of the dorm when she saw her boyfriend’s car in the lot. The student signed Fluker in as a guest, allowing her to get inside the residence, and once inside, she went to the student’s room and attacked a woman who was in bed with her boyfriend, reports said.

The boyfriend broke the fight up, reports said.

Guns reported stolen

YOUNGSTOWN

Police reports said three handguns were taken from an apartment in the 1000 block of Eastway Drive Thursday morning. Police said someone entered through a living room window. Taken were two .38-caliber handguns and a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Also taken was a flat-screen television, iPad and several DVDs, reports said.

Traffic restriction

NORTH LIMA

Interstate 680 under Western Reserve Road will be reduced to one lane in each direction starting Monday and continuing through late August for bridge repairs. Western Reserve Road over the interstate will be reduced to one lane in each direction starting May 18, for bridge repairs.

The work is part of an $8.9 million Ohio Department of Transportation project to replace the Western Reserve Road bridge and resurface I-680 from U.S. Route 224 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The project is scheduled to be complete in October.

Fire damages house

YOUNGSTOWN

A fire department spokesman said a fire at a 915 Parkwood Ave. home at about noon Friday was largely confined to a bedroom. The spokesman said a family managed to get out before firefighters arrived. There were no injuries, and damage was minimal, the spokesman said. The cause is still under investigation.

Dog intervenes

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports said a man arrested for domestic violence at about 1 a.m. Friday was attacked by his girlfriend’s dog as he reportedly attacked the woman.

Police were called to a home in the 600 block of North Bon Air Avenue on the West Side found Glenn Swift, 35, sitting in the driveway with several puncture wounds on his hand and leg.

The woman in the house told police Swift became enraged when she took his keys because she thought he was too drunk to drive, and he choked her and threw her down on the floor.

As he continued choking her, reports said, the dog got out of its cage and started biting Swift. The woman managed to get up, grab the dog and run into a room and call police. Swift was taken to the Mahoning County jail on a charge of domestic violence.

NAACP scholarships

YOUNGSTOWN

The second annual NAACP scholarship recognition program will be from noon to 5 p.m. today at McGuffey Centre, 1649 Jacobs Road. The event, sponsored by the Youngstown Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will honor area scholars from the graduating class of 2015 representing Youngstown State University, Eastern Gateway Community College, Chaney campus, East High School and Choffin Career & Technical Center.

Program participants are the Revs. Willie Peterson, J. Dwayne Heard and Kenneth Simon, and George Freeman Jr., branch president. Refreshments will be available as well as vendors. There also will be a silent auction and raffle.

Women’s event

YOUNGSTOWN

Women United!, a new women’s movement, is taking action even before its first meeting by feeding 250 to 300 inner-city children at 9:30 a.m. today at St. Dominic Parish Center, 77 E. Lucius Ave., before the kids head to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Covelli Centre.

Circus tickets are provided by the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley and Difference Makers. The first meeting of Women United!, a leadership group under the United Way umbrella, is set for 10:30 a.m. at the church.