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YPD nabs three on gun charges, OSHP also makes gun arrest
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
City police arrested three people on weapons charges over the weekend in separate traffic stops, and a fourth person was taken into custody by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Jeffrey Brown, 23, of East Lucius Avenue, was arraigned Monday in municipal court before Judge Elizabeth Kobly on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, resisting arrest, improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and possession of a defaced firearm.
Reports said officer Kenneth Garling pulled over a car Brown was a passenger in about 11:50 p.m. Sunday at East Lucius and Homestead avenues for running a stop sign and making an improper turn. Police found a .44-caliber revolver under the seat where Brown was sitting.
When police tried to take Brown into custody, he tried to pull away and had to be tackled before he was handcuffed. Reports said Brown told police he was planning on trading the gun for heroin. The gun was loaded, and the serial number was also scratched off.
Judge Kobly set his bond at $35,000. Court records also showed that this is Brown’s third weapons offense.
Also arraigned before Judge Kobly on charges of carrying concealed weapons, being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of marijuana was Noel Rios, 30, of Shelby Avenue, who was arrested by police about 2:10 a.m. Sunday in the 300 block of South Jackson Street.
Officer Jeffrey Savnik noticed a vehicle that Rios was a passenger in was parked on the wrong side of the road with the lights off, then tried driving away with the lights off in the wrong direction of travel.
Reports said Savnik could smell marijuana inside the car, and the driver of the car, Girald Cruz, 19, of South Garland Avenue, gave him a bag of suspected marijuana. Cruz was ordered out of the car and police found he has a suspended license. Cruz was taken out and searched, as was Rios.
Rios told police he had a gun and marijuana on him. When Rios was searched by officer Brandon Caraway, police found four bags of suspected marijuana and a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, reports said, that was loaded with five rounds of ammunition.
Cruz was given citations for driving under suspension and possession of marijuana. Bond for Rios was set at $45,000.
Late Saturday, troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol arrested Dylan Samargia, 24, of South Yorkshire Avenue in Austintown, after a car he was driving was pulled over on Mahoning Avenue for driving without headlights.
Reports said one of the passengers asked a trooper what kind of gun he carried and told the trooper he had a gun but the ammunition was separate and in the trunk. Reports said Samargia also told troopers he had a gun.
Samargia and the passengers were taken out of the car and a 9 mm handgun was found in the center console next to where Samargia was sitting. Two rounds of ammunition were on the floor next to the gear shifter, reports said.
Samargia was charged with improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle because the ammunition was not kept separate and was easily accessible to the driver.
Under the driver’s seat where the passenger could reach it was a .40-caliber handgun, but no charges were filed because the gun was unloaded and the ammunition was in the trunk.
Samargia also was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Judge Kobly set his bond at $20,000.
Dwayne Lloyd, 53, of Potomac Avenue, was arraigned before Judge Kobly on charges of possession of crack cocaine and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Reports said Lloyd was pulled over about 12:55 a.m. Saturday at Firnley and Ferndale avenues for an improper turn and he appeared nervous when police asked him about a blackjack that was at his feet on the floor of his car.
Reports said Lloyd was told to get out of the car and he then told officers he had a concealed carry permit and a gun was in the center console of his car.
Reports said officers found two bags of suspected crack cocaine in his pockets and a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol in the center console of his car with nine live rounds in the magazine.
Reports said Lloyd told police he was smoking crack because he has back pain and had been smoking it for a year.
He was charged with a weapons violation because he did not tell the officer immediately that he had a firearm and also because he had drugs in his possession.
Lloyd’s bond was set at $25,000.