Cops seize three guns, arrest three on weapons charges

May 4, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Police seized three guns and took three people into custody on weapons charges Monday after responding to a call of a fight with weapons on the South Side.

The three – Phillip Hardy, 24, of West Judson Avenue; Samuel Richard, 27, of Palmer Avenue; and Seaira Kirkle, 22, of Cambridge Avenue – were all caught when an officer responding to the call saw an SUV they were in pull out of the drive of the home they were called to.

All three are in the Mahoning County jail and are expected to be arraigned in municipal court today.

Reports said officers were called about 3:45 p.m. to the 200 block of Ellenwood Avenue for a report of a fight with weapons, and when officer Dorothy Johnson turned onto the street, she saw a white SUV with three people inside pull out of the driveway and drive away at high speed.

Johnson managed to pull over the SUV at Hasley and Marion avenues and the three people inside the SUV jumped out and began to run away. Johnson ordered them to stop, and they obeyed, reports said, but Richard would not keep his hands in sight until he was handcuffed.

Police searched the car and found two loaded 25-caliber semiautomatic handguns and a loaded .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun.

Reports said the three told police Richard asked the other two for a ride to the Ellenwood Avenue home because the mother of his child lives there. When they arrived, Richard began arguing with her. Reports said Hardy heard a man inside the home say he was going to kill Richard, so the three went back to the vehicle to get their weapons when police arrived.

Hardy said he ran out of the SUV after it was stopped because he wanted to go back to the home on Ellenwood Avenue and fight the person who threatened Richard, reports said.

Reports said Richard gave police a false name and he also has several warrants, including one for felonious assault.