YOUNGSTOWN — Tyrone F. Crafter Jr. was arraigned Monday in Youngstown Municipal Court on felony fleeing and eluding and misdemeanor street racing and driving under suspension after a 2:10 a.m. crash Sunday into a house on East Dewey Avenue at Rush Boulevard.

Crafter, 27, of New Court Street, was booked into the Mahoning County jail but released later Sunday on $4,000 bond.

Police said they saw Crafter’s orange Dodge Challenger southbound on South Avenue, engaged in a high-speed street race with another vehicle. The car was weaving in and out of traffic before it passed another vehicle.

Officers activated their lights and siren and tried to catch up to the vehicles. The Challenger driver turned off his headlights and turned west onto East Dewey Avenue and accelerated.

The officer advised dispatch of the pursuit, direction, speed and reason for the chase. Because of the high speed, the officer advised the dispatcher that the pursuit was being terminated at East Dewey near Erie Street, according to a police report.

The vehicle continued on East Dewey, crossing Market Street. Then the officer saw large amounts of smoke but could not see the vehicle.

Residents of 32 Chicago Ave. then advised that a male, later identified as Crafter, was knocking on their rear door saying he was being chased by police. Officers went to the home and found Crafter sitting on the steps at the side of the home with insulation on his clothing that was “consistent with” the insulation on the car found crashed into the vacant home at 62 W. Dewey Ave.

The two locations are about two blocks from each other on the South Side.

Crafter was placed in the back of a police car and later taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital for chest pain and pain in his back and knees. While laying on a gurney, Crafter stated that running from police was a dumb decision, but he did not state the reason he fled, according to a police report.

erunyan@tribtoday.com