Man faces charges after girlfriend shot Sunday

YOUNGSTOWN — A Canton Street man is in the Mahoning County jail on charges that he shot his girlfriend in the leg about 7 p.m. Sunday at his home and then forced her to tell police she had shot herself.

James Sunderman, 30, is expected to be arraigned later today in municipal court on a charge of felonious assault.

Reports said police found a woman bleeding from a shotgun wound to the thigh when they arrived at Sundeman's home for a call that a woman had shot herself with a .12-gauge shotgun.

However, the victim told police at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital where she was being treated for her wound that Sunderman shot her after they had been arguing and other witnesses told police the same thing and that he threatened her when she called 911 by holding the shotgun to her head and making her say she shot herself.

Additionally, evidence at the home did not match Sunderman's story, reports said.