Edward Agee

YOUNGSTOWN — Edward Agee, 18, was arraigned Friday in Youngstown Municipal Court on felony fleeing and eluding and misdemeanor inciting to violence, inducing panic and disorderly conduct charges in an Oct. 3 altercation involving a gun aimed at Valley Christian High School football players at a practice.

Agee was booked into the Mahoning County jail Friday, arraigned and released the same day, according to jail records. His bond was $7,500, and he returns for a preliminary hearing on the felony and a pretrial on the misdemeanors at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 3. If he is convicted, he could get several years in prison.

A Youngstown police report states that about 3:42 p.m. Oct. 3, a Youngstown police officer was “looking in on” the football team at 1833 Market St., the former South High School, when a coach pointed to Agee, who appeared to be running with an all-black bag with a strap, which the officer stated was later identified to be a rifle.

Agee ran to a car, got in and “drove straight towards me to hit me,” but the officer moved his cruiser out of the way, and Agee drove out of the parking lot and directly onto Market Street without stopping and turned onto Falls Avenue and into Mill Creek Park.

The officer chased the vehicle to Old Furnace Road, but after it turned east onto Volney Road, the officer lost sight of the vehicle, the report states.

The officer then returned to the former South High School and learned from two other officers who had spoken with the football coach and a player, that Agee and two others came to the football field with a rifle, “threatening to kill everybody.”

While Agee was pointing the rifle at the people on the football field, the other two males “tried to fight victims,” the report states.

The officers were told that the three suspects had seen the first officer when he arrived at the facility, and that is when they “took off on foot in different directions and Agee, with the rifle, ran to the vehicle.

One of the football players said he had been in a fight with the three suspects the day before on Carroll Street on the South Side. Officers went to two locations looking for Agee but did not locate him.

A short time later, officers found the car Agee was driving on West Evergreen Avenue on the South Side and had it towed to investigate.

CANCELED GAME

Because of the gun, the football game the next night between Columbiana High School and Valley Christian High School was postponed.

In an Oct. 4 statement on Facebook, Valley Christian President Michael A. Pecchia stated: “At the beginning of our football practice (Friday), three of our former students arrived at the practice field to continue a physical altercation that involved a group of our current football players.

“Unfortunately, one of the former students retrieved a gun from his car. Thankfully, our head coach recognized the former student and confronted him. The young man immediately fled the scene without further incident.”

The statement added, “We live in a broken world where young people too often turn to violence to settle their differences. Even Valley Christian School is not immune to such incidents.”

Capt. Jason Simon of the Youngstown Police Department said Monday that warrants have been issued for the two other suspects, but they had not yet been apprehended.

COLUMBIANA COACH

Columbiana coach Bob Spaite told the Salem News that the game was postponed because of “some genuine safety concerns,” adding that officials “were concerned (the violence) wasn’t over.”

“The young man who had the gun still hadn’t been found. They made the right call,” Spaite said. “We’ve never had any issues with Valley. There’s never been an incident with them.”

Valley Christian practices at the old Youngstown South High School stadium and plays its home games at Liberty High School.