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YPD: 2 wounded in separate shootings
Man with loaded gun faces multiple charges, says, ‘Rather be caught with it than without it’
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police investigated two separate shootings Monday, responded to a fight where a woman was thrown out of her car and arrested a man with a gun who told officers he needed it to protect himself.
Police arrested Dehaven Scurry, 49, of Verona Avenue, on charges of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, trafficking in marijuana, possession of drugs, being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of cocaine and driving under suspension.
Reports said Scurry was driving a car police pulled over about 7:50 p.m. for running a stop sign at Gibson and East Florida avenues on the South Side.
Scurry told police he has a suspended license, and a records check found he has two warrants so he was taken out of the car and put into custody.
Reports said he told officers he had a gun under the back seat that belonged to his girlfriend.
Officers checked and found a loaded 9 mm handgun, and inside a bag in a trunk they found 51 pills, suspected crack cocaine, two bags of suspected marijuana and a marijuana grinder. Inside Scurry’s shirt pocket was $703 cash, reports said.
After he was placed in a cruiser, Scurry began having a seizure and paramedics were called, reports said.
After he was treated, reports said he told police he had the gun because “This is Youngstown, Ohio, and people get robbed and shot all the time. Rather be caught with it than without it.”
He was booked into the Mahoning County jail.
Later in the evening, police said a 26-year-old man showed up about 9 p.m. at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital with a gunshot wound to his foot.
The victim told police he was sitting in a car on Dogwood Lane on the East Side when two men in a passing pickup truck fired several shots at him, one of the bullets striking him in the foot.
Earlier, about 3:25 p.m., a 29-year-old woman was shot three times in her legs.
Officers were called to the victim’s home in the 100 block of Upland Avenue on the North Side, where she told police she was sitting outside by the basement door when a man dressed in black wearing a mask appeared in her backyard and fired several shots at her.
The victim managed to make it inside the house and her roommate called 911.
Police found shell casings, spent bullets and several bullet holes in the driveway, reports said.
Reports said a 22-year-old woman Monday was beaten and thrown out of her car because her boyfriend was upset she would not let him drive her car.
Officers were called about 3:50 p.m. to Almyra Avenue on the South Side, where the woman told police her boyfriend hit her in the face before getting out of the car, getting on top of her in the driver’s seat and then beat her about the head and upper body before throwing her out.
The woman told police she barely had time to grab a child in the back seat before her boyfriend drove away, running over one of her feet in the process, reports said.
Reports said the victim had injuries to her face, forehead, elbow, feet, ankle and thigh. She was seeking medical treatment on her own, reports said.