Police confiscated three guns Wednesday as they ramped up effort to get weapons off the streets this summer. Officers took a gun during a domestic dispute in the Lincoln Knolls area of the East Side late Wednesday evening and earlier in the day took one on the South Side.
Additionally, another gun was taken during a traffic stop on the East Side early Wednesday morning.
Police Chief Rod Foley said one of the goals of the department's Violence Interdiction Program is to get guns off the streets as well as crack down on people who are known to be troublemakers in the city.
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Tribune Chronicle / Joe Gorman
Sonia Wilson, a Youngstown police officer who works in the department’s evidence room, checks the evidence tag on a gun taken by officers during recent Violence Interdiction Patrols.
Foley said officers on the patrols are given a mandate to focus on efforts to get guns and make things difficult for those who make things difficult for citizens in high crime areas.
''We want to be focused and aggressive,'' Foley said. ''If you drive around just waiting for stuff to come to you, nothing ever happens.''
Wednesday, officers working the detail were driving past a gas station at 3200 Market St. on the South Side when they heard very loud music. They pulled in and found an SUV driven by Eric Triplett, 21, of Hawthorn Street, pulling up to a gas pump with his music playing. Police searched him and found he had a .38-caliber revolver, the police report states.
Triplett told officers he had taken concealed weapon classes but did not have a permit. Officers arrested him for carrying a concealed weapon and cited him for loud music. He was taken to the Mahoning County Jail and is expected to be arraigned in Municipal Court today.
About 11:30 p.m. on the East Side, officers were called to the Lamar Street for a woman who said her husband threatened her with a gun and hung up. When officers arrived, the husband was not there and the wife said he was walking toward McCartney Road.
Officers found Hector Ortiz, 39, and he had a large bulge in his waistband, the report states. When he was searched, they found a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun with eight live rounds. He was also arrested on a carrying a concealed weapon charge and he is also expected to be arraigned today, police said.
About 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, police found a .38-caliber revolver on Jamal Turner, 20, of Garfield Street during a traffic stop at Albert and McHenry streets on the East Side during a traffic stop. He was also taken to the jail.
Foley said a lot of times people stopped by police with guns will tell officers they need the gun for protection or because people are looking for them. He said maybe those kinds of people should look for a change of life habits.
''It's dangerous because what you are involved with requires you to carry a gun,'' Foley said.
Helping city police out are agents from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and members of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force. They are focusing on neighborhoods in the city that have experienced shootings and homicides.