YPD: Couple steals items, drags store owner

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports said the owner of a South Avenue store was bitten, hit with a hammer and dragged by a car Thursday after he tried to stop a couple from taking items from the store.

Police were called about 9:15 p.m. to Reemas Fashions, 2608 South Ave., for a report of a robbery and assault. The store owner told them a man and woman were in the store trying to buy merchandise and wanted to pay with a credit card.

The owner asked the couple if they had identification to match the credit card, and they said no. When the owner asked if they had any identification, the couple took the merchandise and ran out of the store.

The owner told police he ran outside and tried to stop them. He got between the passenger door of their vehicle and another vehicle and tried to call 911. The woman then bit the man and hit him with a hammer.

Somehow, reports said, the owner became entangled with the car and was dragged for a short distance as it pulled out of the parking lot but managed to free himself. He had cuts and bruises and a bite mark on his arm. An ambulance was called, but the owner said he would take himself to the hospital after he closed up the store, reports said.

The store was the same place where the previous owner was shot and killed in November 2014 after he confronted a man trying to rob the store, and the two exchanged gunfire. That robber was wounded and he was captured.

Larry McDonald, 20, pleaded guilty to murder and robbery and is serving life in prison with parole eligibility after 33 years.