Youngstown Mayor calls shooting of firefighter 'cowardly act'
Youngstown police are investigating the possibility that someone who argued with firefighters Monday night is the same person who fired two shots at a fire truck, wounding one firefighter. Firefighters leaving a the scene of an Elm Street house fire at around 11:30 were fired upon along Halleck Street. Paul Lutton, 46, who was one of the firefighters aboard engine number 7, was wounded in the leg by one of the two bullets that pierced the truck's passenger compartment.
Youngstown police are investigating the possibility that someone who argued with firefighters Monday night is the same person who fired two shots at a fire truck, wounding one firefighter.
Firefighters leaving a the scene of an Elm Street house fire at around 11:30 were fired upon along Halleck Street.
Paul Lutton, 46, who was one of the firefighters aboard engine number 7, was wounded in the leg by one of the two bullets that pierced the truck's passenger compartment.
Lutton was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital for treatment of injuries that police say are not life threatening.
Another bullet cut through the front of the coat of another firefighter, Dwayne Montgomery, who was not injured.
A look inside the fire truck shows where one of the bullets went through the driver's compartment.
Police, who call the shooting intentional, tell 21 News that while crews were fighting the fire on Elm Street, firefighters became engaged in a verbal altercation with a man on the scene.
When the fire department called police about the argument, the man left the area.
Police are trying to identify that man.
Youngstown Mayor John McNally, who called the incident a cowardly act, has asked police to accompany fire crews on calls until an arrest can be made.
McNally says he expects an arrest soon.
Police are asking anyone with information to call them at 330-742-8950.