YOUNGSTOWN — The 16-year-old boy who allegedly drove off during a traffic stop Jan. 2 on Idlewood Avenue on the South Side, injuring a Youngstown police officer, is charged with assault, a fourth-degree felony, and obstructing official business, a fifth-degree felony.

The boy has a pretrial hearing Wednesday in Mahoning County Juvenile Court on those two charges.

The incident is not the only time in recent weeks the boy has gotten into trouble in a car. He also has a similar felony charge from Dec. 18.

The Jan. 2 incident began with a Youngstown police officer making a traffic stop on the 2010 silver Chevrolet Impala the Youngstown boy was driving on Idlewood Avenue at 11:06 p.m. Jan. 2. The stop was made after the officer saw the car traveling south on Hillman Street and turning onto Idlewood Avenue without using a turn signal and having no registration plate on the car.

After the car stopped, officers could see two people in the car moving around. When officers approached the car, they smelled burnt marijuana, according to a police report.

An officer told the driver to exit the vehicle. The driver hesitated to get out of the car, and the officer reached through the window to grab the juvenile by his clothes. But the juvenile pushed the officer away and started to drive. It caused the officer to “enter the auto to avoid falling out or being ran over,” the report states

The vehicle went to the end of the block and then suddenly stopped. The officer was able to take the driver out of the car and handcuff him.

Other officers took the passenger out of the vehicle. The car was searched, and officers found vape products containing THC and two pills thought to be the drug Ecstasy, as well as $1,500 in cash, the report states.

The officer was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital for minor injuries he sustained, the report states.

EARLIER INCIDENT

The Dec. 18 incident resulted in the boy being charged with failure to comply with the order of a police officer, a third-degree felony. That charge was filed by the Youngstown State University Police Department.

A YSU Police Department report states that an officer was on patrol at 7:21 p.m. Dec. 18 when he saw a silver Chevrolet Impala headed north on Fifth Avenue with no visible license plate or registration.

The officer activated his lights and conducted a traffic stop on Arlington Street nearby.

The officer spoke with the boy and learned that the boy had no driver’s license, nor did his passenger, age 18.

The driver wrote his name and birthdate on the officer’s notepad, and the officer verified the boy’s identity, the report states.

“As I walked back to my vehicle to run the name and birthdate on my mobile data terminal, the driver of the vehicle sped off westbound on Arlington Street,” the report states.

The officer and another YSU officer pursued the vehicle, which ignored multiple stop signs and traveled about 60 mph. The officers ended the pursuit on Fairgreen Avenue as it turned on to Ford Avenue on the North Side.

The report does not indicate whether YSU police were able to eventually arrest the boy.

But the criminal complaint in Mahoning County Juvenile Court states that the boy’s charge in that episode involved the boy eluding or fleeing from a police officer, causing “a substantial risk of serious physical harm to persons or property.”