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YPD makes robbery, gun and heroin arrests
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police over the weekend arrested a man in connection with an armed robbery, took two people into custody on possession of heroin charges and arrested a convicted felon on a weapons charge.
Jason Rapcinko, 34, of Youngstown, was arraigned Monday in municipal court on a charge of aggravated robbery. He was arrested about 9:25 p.m. Friday in the backyard of an Imperial Street home.
As police were responding to the call of a robbery at a Salt Springs Road store on the West Side, reports said officers were flagged down and told the person who robbed the store had a gun and ran behind a nearby home.
Officer Casey Kelly drove to Imperial Street, and neighbors told them the suspect, later identified as Rapcinko, was hiding behind a nearby home where Kelly was able to take him into custody.
Police searched a nearby fence line and found a revolver, hat and sunglasses.
The clerk in the store said a man with a mask on his face and wearing sunglasses and a hat pointed a gun at him and demanded money. At some point, the robber’s mask fell off, and the clerk recognized Rapcinko, who is a regular customer.
His bond was set at 10 percent of $50,000.
Reports said when police tried to pull over a four-wheeler about 1:15 a.m. Saturday on the South Side, a woman who was driving behind them, Joesie Mascarella, 20, of Youngstown, stopped when police did and began yelling they had no business confronting the driver of the four-wheeler, Jaquale Gilmore, 20, also of Youngstown.
Officers smelled marijuana coming from Mascarella’s vehicle, and when they asked if she had anything illegal, reports said she told them they had to have a female officer search her. When the officers said they would, she grabbed her shirt with her hand. As officers talked to her, a plastic bag fell out of her shorts that had a dose of suspected heroin inside, reports said.
Reports said a bag also fell from Gilmore’s pockets that had pills and suspected marijuana in it. He was given citations for possession of drugs and possession of marijuana and a warning for driving a four-wheeler on a city street.
Mascarella was taken to the Mahoning County jail on a charge of possession of heroin. Her bond was set at 10 percent of $5,000.
About 3 p.m. Saturday, police arrested Raylen Wallace, 31, of Boardman, at St. Louis Avenue and Hillman Street on the South Side after he was pulled over for making an improper turn and a dose of suspected heroin fell out of his pants. Reports said Wallace told police it was not heroin but something he used to mix drinks. His bond was set at $5,000.
Arraigned on a weapons charge Monday was Garell Williams, 24, of Brooklyn Avenue. Reports said he was a passenger in a car pulled over about 11:05 p.m. Sunday for driving with no headlights on. In the glove compartment, police found a .380-caliber handgun. Williams was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle. His bond was set at $30,000.