Police: neighbors take gun, drugs, thrown from car

July 4, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports said onlookers are suspected of taking a gun and a bag of suspected drugs Sunday that were thrown from the passenger’s side of a car that was fleeing police on the South Side.

Keith Jones, 32, of Market Street, was arraigned Monday in municipal court on charges of tampering with evidence, being a felon in possession of a firearm, improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, possession of heroin and possession of cocaine.

The driver, Jermaine Beverly, 27, also of Market Street, also was arraigned on charges of fleeing and eluding and driving under suspension.

Jones remains in the Mahoning County jail pending a preliminary hearing next Monday. Beverly was taken to the jail shortly after he was arrested and booked, but he was released later in the evening, according to jail records.

An officer tried to pull the car over about 7:25 p.m. after he heard music from a distance so loud it vibrated his rear-view mirror, reports said. Reports said when the car passed, the officer tried to stop it, and it stopped briefly on Hilton Avenue before pulling away. As the officer followed the car, reports said the person in the passenger seat – Jones – threw a gun out the window, and then two plastic bags at two different times.

The car finally stopped in the 100 block of East Lucius Avenue, where both men were arrested.

Several people were outside watching, and when police went back to retrieve the items tossed from the car, they could find only one of the plastic bags.

Reports said witnesses told police a man ran out of a home on Hilton Avenue, picked up the gun and ran back inside.