Report: Youngstown police arrest driver after chase involving stolen car

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A man who reports say was driving a stolen car Monday and led police on a chase from the South Side to the West Side is expected to be arraigned later Tuesday in municipal court.

George Short, 47, was booked into the Mahoning County Jail on charges of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, tampering with evidence and being a felon in possession of a firearm, all third-degree felonies; four fifth-degree felony counts of possession of drugs; improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, a fourth-degree felony; receiving stolen property, a fifth-degree felony; and a misdemeanor drug charge.

Reports said an officer on patrol at about 2:35 p.m. received a notice from the city's new Flock Camera system of a stolen car, and the officer spotted the car traveling north on Steel Street.

The car failed to stop when the officer tried to pull it over, although a passenger jumped out at Silliman and Steel streets, reports said. The car led police to Fifth Avenue on the North Side, then downtown, then up the Market Street bridge.

The car made it as far as West Myrtle Avenue before one of the tires fell off and the driver, later identified by police as Short, jumped out. He was caught after a short foot chase and taken into custody, reports said.

Reports said Short was searched, and police found $79 cash, methadone, fentanyl, cocaine and pills. Inside the car, police found methamphetamine, reports said.

As police were searching the car, they got a call that a gun was found downtown on the route that Short was driving. An officer was sent to retrieve it, reports said. The gun, a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, was taken into evidence.

Reports said Short told paramedics he threw a gun out of the car as he was being chased.