43
Woman calls 911 twice -- from cruiser
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A woman arrested early Sunday after ignoring requests to stop standing in a Market Street intersection called 911 twice from a police cruiser, a report said.
The woman, Shakela Clark, 24, of Tyrell Avenue, told dispatchers that she wanted it “on record in case she wound up dead” that she did not want to die, reports said.
Clark was arraigned in municipal court on misdemeanor charges of obstructing official business and disorderly conduct/hindering movement. She is free until her next court date Sept. 14.
Reports said two officers were responding to a call about 2:55 a.m. Sunday on Market Street when they saw a large group of people in the middle of the street at Market Street and West Hylda Avenue, some of them fighting.
The officers pulled over and started telling people to move out of the street, reports said. Most complied except for Clark, who refused to leave the intersection.
Reports said officers walked up to her and asked her several times to move or she would be arrested. Clark refused because she said she was in the middle of the intersection filming everything with her phone, reports said.
When asked a final time to move or be arrested, Clark put her hands behind her back, and the officers took her into custody and put her in a cruiser. Reports did not say if she was handcuffed.
While the two officers were outside trying to disperse the crowd, they were contacted on their radios by the 911 center. A person in a cruiser whom they identified as Clark called 911 and said she wanted it “on record” in case she died that she was filming the police before she was taken into custody. Clark told the dispatchers that the crowd was “peacefully protesting” when the officers arrived, reports said.
The officers took Clark to the Mahoning County jail and while en route she called 911 again, reports said. This time, she said she “loves her life and does not want to commit suicide,” reports said. When asked Monday, police Chief Robin Lees said he was not sure how Clark still had her cellphone with her if she was being taken to the jail.
Clark was booked into the jail, then released on a summons to appear at her arraignment later in the day, according to jail records.