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YOUNGSTOWN -- Shawn Rodriguez-Perez, 24, remained in the Mahoning County jail Saturday after being arraigned Friday in Youngstown Municipal Court on felony charges of fleeing and eluding and receiving stolen property in a Wednesday incident in which a Youngstown police officer, U.S. marshal and Ohio State Highway Patrol helicopter pilot worked together.
It began with the Youngstown officer and deputy U.S. marshal seeing a man on a green dirt bike near Mahoning and Maryland avenues on the West Side doing wheelies in the road and disregarding the safety of others, a Youngstown police report states.
The officers tried to make a traffic stop, but the driver fled at a high speed west on Mahoning while still driving erratically, the report states. The officers pursued the dirt bike until an Ohio State Highway Patrol helicopter "had eyes on the dirt bike," at which time all officers disengaged their pursuit and allowed the "eye in the sky to provide us information," the report states.
The driver of the dirt bike traveled to a home on Oakwood Avenue on the West Side and parked the dirt bike in the back yard. The man, later identified as Rodriguez-Perez, walked to the front porch, "at which time we arrived on scene," the report states.
Rodriguez-Perez threw off his sweatshirt onto a chair. He was ordered off of the porch, and he was taken into custody. Officers then went to the backyard and pushed the dirt bike to the front yard, ran it through a law enforcement database and discovered it had been stolen out of a garage in Champion on June 1, the report states. The dirt bike was towed from the scene.
Rodriguez-Perez also had a warrant, and he was taken to Mahoning County jail. He returns to Youngstown Municipal Court at 9:30 a.m. Friday for a preliminary hearing. If convicted, Rodriguez-Perez could get about four years in prison.