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YPD finds two guns, arrests three on gun charges
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Three men are set to be arraigned today in municipal court after their arrest with guns they are not allowed to have because of their criminal records.
Police arrested Juwuan Howell, 18, of Smithfield Street, about 11 p.m. Monday after officers found a gun in a car he was driving on the East Side.
Officers were on patrol when a car driven by Howell that was in front of them stopped in the middle of Albert and State streets. The officers checked the license plate, found it was expired, and pulled the car over on Verona Avenue, reports said.
Reports said Howell and a passenger got out of the car and police told them to get back inside. The passenger did, but Howell would not and he was trying to stuff a bag down his pants, reports said. Inside the bag was suspected crack cocaine, suspected powdered cocaine and suspected marijuana, reports said.
Police also found a loaded 9 mm handgun under the driver’s seat, reports said. Howell was taken to the Mahoning County jail on drug charges and a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm because he has a felony warrant from Columbiana County and is not allowed to have a gun while his case is pending. He was also charged with improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle.
Police filed no charges against the passenger.
Earlier Monday, Charles “Pee Wee” Pete, 23, of Southern Boulevard, and Mark Moody, 28, of Mahoning Avenue, are in the county jail each on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm after they were arrested about 11:15 a.m. on East Ravenwood Avenue on the South Side.
Reports said task force officers, acting on a tip two people were about to be killed, found an AK-47 assault rifle and arrested them.
Reports said the pair were spotted by members of the Violent Crimes Task Force and the Violent Fugitive Task Force in a vehicle that was supposed to be used in the crime and officers followed the vehicle before it turned into a drive.
Reports said both men were placed into custody when the rifle was found between the front seat and center console. A records check found they both have prior felony convictions that ban them from having or being around a firearm.
Court records show Moody was sentenced to four years in prison in 2008 from Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on a felonious-assault charge, and in 2013 he was sentenced to two years in prison on an aggravated-robbery charge.
Pete received probation in 2014 for a failure-to-comply charge, and then was given an 18-month prison sentence later in the same year after he pleaded guilty in Mahoning County to charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and aggravated riot, as well as three different felonies in Columbiana County.