Youngstown cops: Man leaves infant in car while being chased

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Charges are expected to be filed in Mahoning County Juvenile Court against a man police say left an infant in the back seat of a car as he ran from police late Tuesday morning.

A spokesman for the department’s Family Investigative Services Unit said officers know who the man is, and the baby was returned to its mother by the Mahoning County Children Services Board.

Reports did not mention the baby’s gender.

Community Police Unit officers Phil Skowron and Jose Morales Jr. were on patrol about 11:30 a.m. in the Wilson Avenue area when they noticed a car at the dead end of Pearl Street on the East Side. The officers pulled onto Pearl Street, and when they did, the car turned around, reports said.

Reports said the officers got out of their cruiser to see if there was anything wrong, and the car’s driver pulled away. The driver then pulled into a yard in the 400 block of Pearl but got stuck, so the driver jumped out and began running away.

Skowron and Morales chased the man on foot through several yards toward an auto-wrecking business, and the man refused to stop, even after being warned that the officers would use their electronic stun weapon on him, reports said. Morales fired a shot at the man with his stun weapon but missed, reports said.

The man continued running into the business, but Morales and Skowron broke off the chase because of what reports termed “unsafe terrain.” When they went back to the car, they discovered the infant in a car seat in the back seat, reports said.

Police could not find the man who ran away even after additional officers were called to help, reports said.

The CSB was called to take custody of the child. The spokesman said CSB contacted the child’s mother and returned the child to her.

Child-endangering charges are expected to be filed against the man.