Kevin Roman, 18, faces a felonious assault and several traffic charges

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Kevin Roman, 18, of Youngstown, facing a felonious-assault charge accusing him of attempting to ram a police cruiser Friday night, is scheduled for a video arraignment in Youngstown Municipal Court today. Roman also faces several traffic charges and an aggravated-robbery charge on a previous warrant, according to Youngstown Police.

The felonious-assault charge stems from an incident that began with an attempted traffic stop by police about 8:30 p.m. Friday after Roman, westbound on Chicago Avenue, failed to stop for a stop sign at Hillman Street and continued on Chicago.

At first, police said the driver, later identified as Roman, slowed as if to stop but then increased speed as he approached the bottom of Chicago, which leads into a parking lot or curves into Rosedale Avenue. The suspect pulled into the parking lot, spun around and headed directly toward the cruiser at a high rate of speed, the police report said.

The driver of the cruiser, with siren and overhead lights activated, made a last-second evasive move to avoid the suspect’s vehicle.

Police pursued the suspect on Rosedale, but after observing Roman go through stop signs at several intersections, called off the pursuit because of the suspect’s erratic driving.

Instead, police checked the area and found the suspect’s car abandoned at Rosedale and West Warren avenues, where they were told by witnesses that a man and a woman had left the car and ran through backyards.

Using K-9 units, police located Roman sitting on a front porch at 446 W. Warren Ave., where he was identified as the driver by the driver of the police cruiser. Roman refused to identify the woman passenger, and police noted that the owner of the vehicle reported the car stolen about two hours after the incident.