METRO DIGEST || Ax attack

Man struck with ax

YOUNGSTOWN

A Youngstown man was sent to the hospital after being assaulted with a weapon Friday night. The suspect tried to strike the victim in the head with an ax in the 1100 block of South Meridian Road at 11:12 p.m. The victim avoided it, but the ax struck his left hand.

Drug charges

YOUNGSTOWN

Police charged a man and woman, both from Warren, Pa., driving together with possessing cocaine and drug paraphernalia Friday evening.

Ryan Kulscar, 28, was the driver of a vehicle pulled over on Williamson Avenue near South Avenue for failing to use a turn signal about 7:45 p.m. Police found a torn bag of crack cocaine on the driver’s floor board. Police also found six plastic bags of crack cocaine, totaling 0.8 grams, on Dakota Gardner, 20, who was the passenger.

Officers also found a glass crack pipe in the center console. Both were transported to Mahoning County jail pending a court appearance Monday afternoon.

Cocaine charges

YOUNGSTOWN

Police arrested a Poland man on drug-possession and drug-paraphernalia charges Friday evening. Jeffrey Wholf, 47, was arrested about 6:16 p.m. after officers pulled him over in a traffic stop near South and Samuel avenues for failing to use his turn signal multiple times. He was found with a gram of crack cocaine and “chore boy,” a scouring pad used by people smoking crack to retain some of the vapors. He was transported to Mahoning County jail.

Workers hit gas line

CHAMPION

A gas leak caused an evacuation of a home on Fairway Place Northwest on Saturday morning. According to the Champion Fire Department, the owner of undeveloped property next to the home had a crew installing fence posts, and their equipment struck a residential gas line about 8:59 a.m. The leak caused residents at 117 Fairway Place NW to evacuate until it was fixed, within an hour.

Teen reports rape

MERCER, PA.

Pennsylvania State Police arrested Walter Krieg, 54, of Mercer, Pa., on multiple charges related to the reported rape of a 17-year-old girl Thursday.

According to a police report, the victim drove with Krieg along East Lake Road late Wednesday morning. She followed him into a desolate wooded area where he assaulted, physically restrained and sexually assaulted her in two different locations. They then left the area and returned to a business in Sharon, Pa. The victim went home and alerted her mother.

Krieg is charged with kidnapping, two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, criminal attempt/rape, unlawful restraint, two counts of aggravated indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors, indecent assault, theft by unlawful taking or disposition and criminal mischief.

He was arraigned before being placed in Mercer County jail after failing to post $250,000 straight bond.

Man charged with domestic violence

GIRARD

Police took a Girard man to Trumbull County jail after he turned himself in Thursday on a domestic violence charge. A 35-year-old woman told police Monday that Louis Dean, 38, of Girard had forcibly entered the bathroom and later the bedroom of the pair’s Patricia Drive home when the woman tried to escape. He’s accused of ripping off part of the woman’s clothing and repeatedly throwing her against furniture.

The police report notes a cut on the woman’s hand and the beginnings of bruises on her arm, as well as damage to doors that Dean is said to have kicked in.