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Youngstown man leads police on high-speed car chase.
By Sarah Lehr
campbell
A Youngstown man was arraigned Friday in Campbell Municipal Court on several traffic violations and a felony charge after a car chase Thursday afternoon that began in Campbell, went through Youngstown and ended in Liberty.
An officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop on McCartney Road in Campbell for a vehicle registered to an owner with a suspended license, according to a police report.
The report states the driver, Franklin Fleming Jr., 56, of Youngstown, then accelerated to more than 80 miles per hour and headed to Youngstown.
Multiple officers from the Campbell and Youngstown police departments responded.
The car became airborne after going over an incline on Lansdowne Boulevard near East High Avenue on Youngstown’s East Side at high speed, the report says.
Police reported the car sustained damage when it fell back down and hit the pavement, emitting sparks and smoke.
It initially was difficult for officers to find the car due to the smoke, Campbell police said.
Police eventually saw the car, which had been damaged during the fall, being pushed by a truck with a snowplow near Homestead Road in Liberty, according to the report.
Possible aiding-and-abetting charges are pending against the snowplow driver. Police believe the plow driver may have known Fleming.
Fleming was apprehended in the driveway of a Homestead Road home and charged with fleeing and eluding a police officer, a felony, and with driving under suspension, failure to obey a red light and obstructed license plates. He was booked into the Campbell City Jail and held without bond.
A passenger in the vehicle, Bernadette Brice, 41, of Youngstown, was uninjured, and police arrested her on a warrant out of Liberty.