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Witnesses threatened in two separate cases
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Witnesses were threatened in two incidents Thursday, police say.
Fred Hardy, 27, was arraigned Friday in municipal court on charges of assault, intimidation of a victim or witness in a crime and vandalism. He was arrested about 7:15 p.m. Thursday at an apartment complex in the 2600 block of Tyrell Avenue.
Police were called there for a report of two men fighting and found Hardy and another man fighting, reports said. The men were separated, and Hardy was placed in a squad car while police investigated.
Reports said a woman told police Hardy was fighting with her brother, and the brother was trying to stop Hardy from beating the woman. She said Hardy had asked her to drop some charges against Hardy’s brother in a court case and when the woman refused she said Hardy began beating her.
Hardy punched her several times and punched the woman’s cousin before he walked into a nearby building. When he came back out and yelled again, the victim’s brother came outside and confronted Hardy. The victim had no marks on her but reports said a witness told police that Hardy was seen punching the victim several times.
After he was informed he would be arrested, reports said Hardy kicked a back seat in a police cruiser and cracked it.
Hardy’s bond was set at $20,000 by Judge Elizabeth Kobly.
Earlier in the day about 10:45 a.m., police arrested Joseph Lumsden, 31, of North Osborn Avenue, on charges of criminal damaging and aggravated menacing. Reports said police were called to Lumsden’s home in the first block of North Osborn for a fight and when officers arrived, they saw a man in the street holding a shotgun.
The officers ordered the man to drop the shotgun, which he did, and he also placed a revolver on the ground after he told police he had a concealed-carry permit.
He then got on his knees and put his hands in the air without incident. Reports said the man told police Lumsden had just gotten out of jail for domestic violence against the man’s girlfriend and her daughter and came back to his home Thursday morning and threatened to kill them and the man.
The man said he knew Lumsden was coming over, so he bought weapons while Lumsden was in jail to protect himself.
Lumsden told police he returned to the home only to take a shower, and he was the one who was threatened, but police said Lumsden was the aggressor and he was arrested. Reports said the incident is still under investigation. In court, Lumsden was arraigned on the criminal-damaging charge in the breaking of a window of a car with a rock. Judge Kobly set his bond at 10 percent of $3,000.