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Three arraigned on gun charges
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Three men were arraigned Friday in municipal court on separate gun charges relating to arrests Thursday and early Friday.
Judge Elizabeth Kobly set bond at $30,000 for Barry Heath, 41, of Compton Lane, who was arraigned on charges of tampering with evidence, fleeing and eluding and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle. He was arrested just after midnight Friday when officers were sent to a home in the 1300 block of East Indianola Avenue for a report of a man with a gun fighting with a woman.
As officers were on the way to the home, they saw the car the man was suspected of driving going in the opposite direction.
Police tried to pull the car over but it failed to stop, instead leading them on a chase that ended at East Dewey Avenue and the overpass over Interstate 680, reports said. Police were able to arrest the driver, Heath, there.
Back at the home, officers found several spent .40-caliber casings and checked the route of the chase for a gun since the sun window on Heath’s car was open, even thought it was raining. Officers managed to find a loaded .40-caliber handgun about 100 feet from where Heath ended his chase.
Heath was booked into the Mahoning County jail on charges of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, failure to comply, domestic violence and discharging a firearm within city limits. He was expected to be arraigned Friday.
Brandon Rozier, 30, of East Evergreen Avenue, was arraigned on a charge of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle after reports said officers found a loaded .25-caliber handgun in his car Thursday.
Rozier’s car was pulled over about 5 p.m. at Market Street and East Delason Avenue for expired plates. It was discovered that Rozier has two warrants from municipal court, and he was taken into custody.
When police searched his car before it was towed, the gun was found under a seat, reports said.
Judge Kobly set his bond at $35,000 on the gun charge and the warrants.
Lynell Stanley, 32, of East Lucius Avenue, was arraigned on charges of carrying concealed weapons, two counts of possession of drugs and obstructing official business after he was tackled after a foot chase Thursday behind an East Ravenwood Avenue home on the South Side.
Reports said patrol officers were told about 5:45 p.m. by a plainclothes officer to look for a car driven by Stanley that was seen engaged in a “hand-to-hand” drug deal in the area of Southern Boulevard.
Officers spotted the car parked in a handicapped spot at a Southern Boulevard bar known for drug sales in the parking lot, reports said.
When officers walked up to the car, Stanley got out and ran away, reports said. As he ran, a loaded .38-caliber revolver fell out of his waistband onto the ground and police recovered it. A records check found the gun had been reported stolen in Austintown.
Reports said Stanley told police a passenger in the car had given him the gun and it was not his.
His bond was set at $30,000.