YOUNGSTOWN — Former Youngstown police Chief Jimmy Hughes, now a Youngstown city councilman, said it’s his duty to help his East Side constituents, which is why he confronted several teenagers and men Tuesday that he suspected of committing break-ins in the neighborhood.

Hughes called Youngstown police at 5:50 p.m. Tuesday to report that he questioned four males (two adults, two teens) in a vehicle in the 3300 block of Oak Street Extension near McKelvey Lake to determine whether they are responsible for area break-ins — and one of them took a swing at Hughes, 70.

The confrontation resulted in Hughes drawing his firearm in self-defense, according to a police report the officers wrote under the category of “miscellaneous noncriminal incident.”

The four were still there when officers arrived, and the man accused of threatening Hughes with his keys told police Hughes pulled out his gun and put him in a “choke hold.”

The man, 35, of Garland Avenue, said he did not want to pursue charges against Hughes and “wished to leave the area,” the report states. All four males were identified and their names documented in the report.

One was 15, one was 16, and one was 27. Two were from Struthers, and one from Youngstown. A witness told police he or she saw a man take a swing at Hughes, but the punch missed, and Hughes ducked.

When asked about the incident Wednesday, Hughes said residents of the Oak Street Extension area have told him and probably reported to police that their homes and cars have been broken into recently.

Hughes cited break-ins of cars and theft of catalytic converters “up and down my street where I live.” He said around a dozen homes in the past month have been burglarized. He said there are many videos of the suspects.

Mostly the incidents are happening between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. Last weekend, three or four people committed such break-ins, Hughes said.

One video shows a person getting into Hughes’ vehicle, he said. About two weeks ago, someone went into Hughes’ vehicle and “took property out,” he said.

Last weekend, it appeared individuals were trying to force their way into his house while his family was home, he said.

Hughes said the male with the keys may have called what Hughes did a “choke hold,” but Hughes, who is a fifth-degree black belt and a trainer of self-defense for law enforcement, called it a “controlled restraint.”

PHYSICAL CONTACT

Hughes said the incident began with Hughes asking the driver for his identification, told him why he was asking for it, “told him he looked like the suspect that tried to burglarize my property.” But there was discussion and the man tried to get past Hughes, causing “physical contact.”

When the man was “drawing back” with his hand holding the keys, Hughes “flipped him around, and I put him in a controlled restraint” rather than get into a fistfight with him, Hughes said. “He was not being choked at all.”

Hughes said he ended up at the location with the four males because someone called Hughes and said that the “guy that was breaking into our driveways and homes and stealing catalytic converters” was at that location.

“I don’t have no problem helping the police. I don’ have no problems protecting myself or my family or my constituents,” Hughes said.

At one point, the man with the keys “put them in his hand as if he had a dagger, and at that point he drew back on me.”

When asked whether his actions to investigate and confront people in that manner are a slap in the face to the police department, Hughes said: “I think us as citizens and us as politicians, anything we can do to help them, that’s what we should do.”

Hughes said he hopes a Youngstown police detective will investigate the individuals in the car and determine whether they are responsible for any of the recent neighborhood break-ins.

erunyan@vindy.com