Police deal with fights on the South Side

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police responding to two separate large fights Wednesday evening on the South Side found a gun at one of them and a man shot in the wrist at the other.

About 8:35 p.m., police were called to Rush Boulevard and East Avondale Avenue for a report of a teen firing a gun in the air. Reports said officers arrived and found the teen matching the description walking with another group of teens, but when police showed up the 16-year-old walked away with his hand on his waist, refusing to stop, reports said.

When an officer told the teen to put his hands in the air, instead the teen ran away through several streets with a gun in his hand, reports said. Reports said the teen entered a garage at East Avondale and Gibson avenues and a young child got between the officer and the teen. The officer told the child to leave and he did, reports said.

The teen eventually came out but it took several commands for him to drop the gun he was carrying, reports said. The gun was a .38-caliber revolver and the teen told police he found it and took it for protection. The teen told police he got in a fight with a large group of people and took the gun to go back to fight and fired it once or twice in the air, reports said.

Reports said officers were contacted by Boardman police, who said a trailer at 4055 South Ave. in the township was hit by a bullet about the same time police were called that matched the kind in the gun city police found. The teen was taken to the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center on several weapons charges.

About 9:45 p.m., police were called to the 500 block of East Boston Avenue for a large fight. When they arrived, they found a 30-year-old man had been shot. Reports said officers found 16 .45-caliber shell casings at three different locations.

The victim was driven to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital by a family member with a gunshot wound to the wrist. He told police he was trying to break up the fight when he was shot. He is expected to recover.

Both incidents are being investigated by the department’s Family Services Unit. Lt. Ramon Cox, who heads up the unit, said it appears the two are not related.