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BOARDMAN -- Police are investigating a fight outside Walmart that involved at least 15 people, including a woman with a gun.
The Monday evening melee escalated when a woman allegedly brandished a firearm and pepper-sprayed several people, including a juvenile, according to a Boardman police report.
Officers responded to the store shortly before 9 p.m. after receiving reports of a large fight. The confrontation had ended by the time police arrived.
The first responding officer encountered a crowd on the west side of the building, where a Walmart employee directed him toward the group and said a woman with a gun had fled.
A juvenile witness told police she had seen two girls fighting near Youngstown Skate on Tiffany Boulevard before the group moved toward Walmart.
Police said a man who had just left the skating rink with his family told police he saw a group of people running toward Walmart, stopped his vehicle near the group and began recording the confrontation with his phone, hoping to prevent another fight.
He said an adult woman then approached his vehicle and pepper-sprayed him in the face. The man’s family also was affected by the spray.
He told police a verbal argument followed, during which the woman brandished a firearm. Another witness reported hearing the woman cock or load the gun.
The report states the family fled toward its vehicle for safety, and witnesses reported seeing the woman enter a turquoise or blue Dodge Durango and leave the area.
Boardman firefighters and Lane EMS personnel responded to evaluate those exposed to the pepper spray.
Several people were medically cleared at the scene, but one juvenile, suffering eye pain, was transported by ambulance to Akron Children’s Hospital for further treatment.
Police obtained phone recordings of the confrontation and surveillance video from Walmart as evidence.
The report states police also searched Flock license-plate reader records and located a blue Dodge Durango traveling on Tiffany Boulevard around 9 p.m.
The vehicle’s registration information helped police identify a woman matching the description of the suspected assailant. She was listed as a person of interest, but her name was not released.
Police classified the incident as intimidation and simple assault. The report does not state that any arrests had been made or criminal charges filed, and the investigation remained active as of Tuesday afternoon.