Man arrested with gun, duct tape, in back yard

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Police arrested a man with a loaded gun and duct tape early Wednesday in the back yard of a vacant South Side home, after answering several stalking calls.

Melvin Johnson Jr., 47, of Park Heights, is expected to be arraigned Friday in municipal court on charges of carrying concealed weapons, resisting arrest, obstructing official business and menacing by stalking. He was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital to be examined after his arrest.

He was caught about 12:10 a.m. in a back yard in the 300 block of East Florida Avenue.

Reports said officers had been called to a home on nearby Marmion Avenue about 3 p.m. Tuesday when a woman said someone cut her power lines and believed it was Johnson. The woman had paperwork for a restraining order against Johnson but he had yet to be served, reports said.

Police were called back again about 10:50 p.m. for a person in a back yard, and they spotted a car that was registered to a woman who lived at Johnson’s address. Reports said officers came back after midnight Tuesday to check the neighborhood for Johnson and spotted him in the back yard.

Johnson refused to stop when police called out to him and instead ran away clutching his waist, reports said.

At one point, he fell and tried to crawl away before he got up and started running again. An officer behind him used his stun weapon but the weapon did not work.

Johnson fell again and this time, an officer fell on top of him before he could get up. The two struggled before other officers managed to get Johnson under control.

After he was cuffed, police found a loaded .22-caliber revolver and the duct tape, reports said.

Reports said Johnson complained of pain so paramedics were called to take him to the hospital. He is expected to be booked into the Mahoning County jail once he is released from the hospital.