YOUNGSTOWN — A city man is accused of firing a handgun into the air multiple times.

He’s also accused of jumping around near a woman and her three small children, who were in a car at North Hazelwood and Donald avenues early Tuesday.

Jawon A. Ferrell, 32, of Donald Avenue, was arraigned this week in Youngstown Municipal Court on a felony charge of discharging a firearm in a prohibited place and a misdemeanor charge of inducing panic. If convicted, he could get about three years in prison.

During a conversation with police, Ferrell admitted to firing the gun, saying he did so because he thought the people in the car were responsible for thefts from his car, a report said.

“Look, my car has been getting broke into several times,” he told two officers who came to investigate.

“I came home and saw the front doors open on both of my cars. I saw this dark car parked at the intersection near my house, so I thought they had to be the ones breaking into my car,” he said.

“So I have my (carrying concealed weapons) permit, and I started shooting. I’m protecting my stuff.”

Ferrell took police into his house and relinquished two firearms on his bed. Police referred to Ferrell as being “very cooperative,” according to a police report. One of the guns was reported stolen in 1993, police said.

A woman called 911 at 6:51 a.m. Tuesday saying a man was behind her vehicle shooting, causing her children to start screaming. She said the man had gotten out of the passenger side of a vehicle before shooting the gun near her car. As she drove away, the man chased her car and continued shooting in the air, the woman said.

Officers got no answer at Ferrell’s house when they knocked, but a little while later, Ferrell came out of the house and “began to have a conversation” with officers before confessing to the crime.

Police recovered nine spent shell casings in the street, the police report states.

erunyan@tribtoday.com