Man charged in knife fight at Kirkmere

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A suspect in a knife fight Oct. 29 across the street from a youth football game also was secretly indicted by a Mahoning County grand jury just two days before the fight on allegations of being a member of a drug ring.

Edward McElroy, 31, was charged Friday in city municipal court with one count of felonious assault in the fight in a parking lot at Kirkmere Elementary School, where two people were injured.

On Oct. 27, McElroy was indicted on charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and trafficking in heroin, and he was arrested Monday. He is one of 20 people accused of bringing in heroin and marijuana from three states to Youngstown to be sold.

He was arraigned Friday on the drug charges in common pleas court. He has yet to be arraigned in municipal court on the felonious assault charge.

Several witnesses, none of whom wished to be identified, said the men, who they say are not connected to the United Youth Football League, which was playing across the street, got into a fight at the concession stand. Kirkmere is on Kirk Road just off Schenley Avenue.

The fight moved across the school entryway to the parking lot where the stabbings occurred out of sight of most of the football players, a witness said. Two people were stabbed. They fled but later ended up at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

Detectives investigating the case could not be reached Friday to comment further.