YOUNGSTOWN — A 4-year-old girl suffered a “gash” on her head and her foot as a result of being side-swiped by a car as the child was crossing the street near her home on West Marmion Avenue on the South Side Friday.

A Youngstown police report states the child and at least one other sibling went outside on their own while their mother was sleeping. The incident was reported at 1:57 p.m. Saturday, but it happened “sometime before noon” on Friday, the child’s mother told police.

The woman said she woke up to her children outside screaming. She saw a white vehicle in the road and a tall male walking toward her. She thought he was a police officer at first because he had a “badge” around his neck, later realizing the badge was for a carrying concealed weapons permit.

He told the woman he was sorry and that he would be right back with a pen and paper to get her information to report the accident, but he did not return, a police report states.

The woman took a photo of the man’s license plate. However, the report stated it was not clear if the registered owner of the car is the same as the male the woman saw.

The woman took the child to the hospital and reported to police that the child suffered a concussion and received 27 stitches on her left foot, the report states.

The woman told police that she is pregnant and that when her youngest child took a nap sometime before noon Friday, her other children decided to go outside unsupervised, the report states. The woman said she did not give the children permission to go outside.

The “children outside” told the woman that they were across the street when the 4-year-old was side-swiped by a vehicle as she was trying to cross the street on her way back to her house, the report states.

The report made no mention of the mother being charged with any criminal offense.

ARREST BY CHURCH

Meanwhile, at 9:26 a.m. Sunday, a Youngstown police lieutenant working security at St. Dominic Church on East Lucius Avenue on the South Side spoke with a person who stated that a church member was harassed by a man wearing tan pants and a white shirt in the parking lot on East Lucius Avenue.

The officer said he also learned that the suspect threw a bottle and asked the church member to fight. The person later got a call from the victim who told her that the suspect had returned. The officer drove his cruiser to the location where the man was near the parking lot and activated the cruiser’s lights, but the man fled on foot.

The officer and a second officer followed him and apprehended him after a foot chase by pulling the hood on his sweatshirt and pulling him onto the ground, the report states. The suspect advised that he had a handgun in his waistband. The officer put the man in handcuffs and secured the handgun.

The man had warrants through Boardman and Medina and police learned that he had been charged twice previously with being a felon in possession of a firearm. A man, 35, with the same first and last name as was given in the police report was booked into the Mahoning County jail Sunday, but there was no one by that name with any new criminal charges on file in online Youngstown Municipal Court records as of Monday evening.

The man was booked into the jail on charges including being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying concealed weapons and obstructing official business.

After the man was taken to jail, the officer spoke with the victim, who said the suspect was bothering him and his family. The victim said he asked the male to leave, but the male threw a drink bottle at him and asked him to fight. The victim said he did not “want any problems” but would defend himself. The suspect walked away.