Woman jailed on gun charge

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police reports said a woman found Monday with a handgun that had a 23-round clip told officers she needed the weapon because, “Youngstown cops ain’t worth s---.”

Megan Noel, 20, of Pasadena Avenue, is in the Mahoning County jail on a fourth-degree felony charge of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and a minor misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana. She is expected to be arraigned in municipal court today.

Reports said Noel was a passenger in a car seen about 7:40 p.m. by officers Mark Sember and Anthony Trimble that ran a stop sign at Pasadena and Zedaker avenues.

When the officers tried to pull the car over, it pulled into a driveway in the 900 block of Cameron Avenue and the driver jumped out and began running away. Reports said Sember ran after the man but gave up the chase after he lost sight of him.

Reports said Noel was in the car and when she was taken out by police, they could see the butt end of a handgun sticking out of the area between the passenger’s seat and the center console. Reports said Noel told the officers the gun, a .40-caliber semiautomatic Glock, was hers.

Noel also volunteered that the clip in the gun held 23 rounds of ammunition and told police why she needed the weapon in response to a standard question officers ask for a report they are required to make whenever they recover a firearm.

A small bag of suspected marijuana also was found on top of the console, reports said.

The gun seized by police was the 29th gun seized so far in 2016. Police seized nine of those guns in February.