Facing gun charge

Facing gun charge

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports said a man early Friday tried to push his overheated car out of a Southern Boulevard drive on the South Side just before he was arrested on a gun charge.

Jason Payton of Lowell Avenue was arraigned in municipal court on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and receiving stolen property. Judge Renee DiSalvo set his bond at $7,500.

Reports said police were called about 2:10 a.m. to a home in the 4300 block of Southern Boulevard for a man with a gun trying to get inside a home. When police arrived, they found steam coming from a car in the drive and Payton, who was hiding under a seat, slipped out of the car and tried to push it.

Payton was taken into custody, and officers found a .22-caliber revolver that had been stolen out of Youngstown under the seat.

Gun found after chase

YOUNGSTOWN

Police found a .40-caliber handgun on a man they chased Thursday after hearing shots fired at an outdoor party on the East Side.

Marcos Cuevas Garcia, 30, is charged with carrying concealed weapons, obstructing official business and using weapons while intoxicated after being arrested about 8:20 p.m. by police in the 1300 block of Grandview Avenue.

Reports said officers on another call on Arch Street heard gunfire and traced it to an outdoor party on Grandview. When Garcia saw the officers, he hid something in his clothing and tried to conceal it with a beer bottle before he ran away.

He was caught after a short foot chase, which was when police found the gun in his pocket.

Garcia also smelled heavily of alcohol, reports said. He was not arraigned Friday because he was in Campbell Municipal Court being arraigned on an unrelated charge.

Driver flees after crash

YOUNGSTOWN

Police said the driver of a pickup truck that crashed into a utility pole about 1:40 p.m. Friday on Cohasset Drive between Volney Road and Glenwood Avenue on the South Side ran away.

The front of the truck sustained heavy damage, but the pole was not knocked down nor was power cut to the area.

The air bags in the truck also deployed. Police had the truck towed.

Death ruled accidental

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County coroner this week ruled the death of a Michigan truck driver in May at an Austintown truck stop accidental.

A report issued this week said that Arman Meco, 29, died May 2 from injuries he received after being dragged by another semi at the Pilot Travel Center.

The truck driver, Guillaume Pelletier, 23, of Quebec, was charged with vehicular homicide by police because they said he had ample time to see Meco and avoid him even though Meco walked in front of his truck. The case against Pelletier is pending.

Groundbreaking for fire-training facility

CANFIELD

There will be a groundbreaking ceremony for a $1.1 million fire tower and training facility at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center (behind the building by door #70) at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The center will feature classrooms, a three-story fire tower and a station/garage building for storage of the school’s fire engines and student gear. This addition will allow both high school student and adult firefighter trainees to simulate search-and-rescue operations and other scenarios they’ll encounter on the job.

The project is expected to be complete in January.

Southside Experience

YOUNGSTOWN

The Southside Summer Experience is from 1 to 3 p.m. today near 356 E. Philadelphia Ave., weather permitting. There will be music, free food and a bounce house for children.

Waterline break leads to buckling of street

NILES

A street buckled Friday under the pressure of a waterline break.

21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, surveyed the damage to determine if there was an impact to water customers.

At the intersection of Belmont Avenue and Mason Street, the rush of the water that appeared like a river running through the neighborhood could be heard.

Jim Jones, chief engineer for the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, said 90 pounds of water pressure buckled the pavement, flooded basements and created small sink holes. “It was a 20- inch cast-iron line built in 1929,” he told the television station.

Belmont Avenue at Mason in Niles could be closed to traffic for four or five days as work crews repair the waterline, and then repair the damaged road.