Man jumps on roof to avoid cops

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Malcolm Dates was a hard man to catch, but he finally was caught Tuesday.

Dates, 23, of Potomac Avenue, was arraigned in municipal court Wednesday on charges of possession of heroin, burglary, resisting arrest and driving under suspension. Magistrate Anthony Sertick set his bond at $7,500.

He was arrested about 5:35 p.m. after officers talked him down from a roof at an apartment building in the 500 block of Idora Avenue, reports said.

Dates was the driver of a car pulled over earlier by vice-squad officers Frank Bigowsky and James Welch at Princeton and Utilis avenues for an improper turn, reports said.

Reports said Dates told police he had no driver’s license, and the officers told him to get out of the car because it was going to be towed.

Dates got out of the car but had a hand in his pocket, reports said. Reports said when he was told to get his hand out of his pocket, he pivoted on his side and threw a bag of suspected heroin on the ground, then ran away.

Police chased Dates but could not catch him.

A passenger in the car, Nechal Rice, 23, of Warren, was arrested on a charge of possession of heroin after she admitted to police that a bag of suspected heroin on top of a change purse in the back seat was hers.

As officers were doing the paperwork, they got a tip that Dates was at a home in the 500 block of Idora Avenue. When they arrived, they knocked on the door, and when a woman opened the door, they saw Dates standing in a stairway, reports said.

Dates ran away through a living room, broke a window and scampered to the roof, reports said. He was eventually talked down by officer Melvin Johnson, reports said.

Dates was taken to the Mahoning County jail after he was treated at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital for cuts he received from the window, reports said.

Sertick set Rice’s bond at $3,500.