Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — The summertime law enforcement effort called the Impact Initiative seems to have again found some alleged lawbreakers unaware that aerial support was in use.

Just before 11 p.m. Tuesday, a Youngstown police officer, along with an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper, were in a patrol cruiser together on Boston Avenue on the South Side when they saw a black BMW traveling fast on South Avenue, a Youngstown police report states.

The Youngstown officer got a look at the driver, and the two tried to conduct a traffic stop, but the BMW accelerated to about 80 mph and the officers disengaged because of the speed. A Highway Patrol aircraft was monitoring the vehicle’s movements, however, and observed it reaching a speed of 112 mph on Shirley Road, then Wilson Avenue, then Federal Street and then Andrews Avenue, where it pulled into a garage in the 1100 block, the report states.

Officers arrived at the garage, surrounded the business and called out to occupants with two men being detained pending further investigation. One of the officers in the State Patrol cruiser identified Derrian Thomas, 23, as the driver of the BMW, the report states. He was charged with felony failure to comply with the order of a police officer, a mid-level felony, and was taken to the county jail. He was arraigned on the charge Wednesday in Youngstown Municipal Court.

The report noted that during Thomas’ drive, he nearly struck a motorist at South and Hilton Avenues, ran multiple red lights and passed multiple cars. The passenger of the car said he was the owner of the business on Andrews Avenue.

The man gave police permission to retrieve the BMW Thomas was driving. As they entered the area where the car was located, officers smelled marijuana and saw another vehicle inside with lots of bullet holes in it and a handgun in the front passenger door and an AR-15-style rifle in the back seat and another vehicle that had a large quantity of marijuana in the back seat and trunk.

The passenger had no new charges on file in Youngstown Municipal Court as of Wednesday afternoon.