Teens face charges for Liberty Township fight involving AR-15

Two teens from the Boardman area are facing charges stemming from a fight involving an AR-15 over the weekend in Liberty Township.

Police say they initially thought the victim was the suspect when they arrived at Montrose Street at around 5 p.m. Saturday. 

Neighbors called police about a possible juvenile near their homes with an AR-15. Officers arrived to find the man on Northlawn Drive where he retrieved the weapon.

It turned out the victim told police he stowed the gun in a wooded area of a nearby property after he was ambushed and got into an altercation with two individuals. 

The victim told police the gun came from the black Chevy SUV they were driving in.

This juvenile male sitting behind the steering wheel of the black Chevy SUV faces a list of charges including felonious assault and improperly handling a firearm.

A victim tells police that the teen, along with a juvenile female passenger randomly assaulted him on Montrose Street Saturday evening while he was walking down the road.

The victim claims he took the pair's AR-15 rifle during the fight and hid it in the woods. He returned later to retrieve it, and that's when neighbors called the police.

"He got into a fight with the other juvenile who had the weapon. During that fight, it was an attempted robbery according to our victim, he was able to disarm this individual," said Captain Ray Buhala with the Liberty Police Department.

Police are investigating to determine a motive for the incident possibly.

The juvenile male suspect's father eventually turned him in to police, along with the ammunition that fell out of the gun during the fight.

He remains in the Trumbull County Juvenile Detention Center.

Late Monday, investigators identified the female passenger. Captain Buhala says the gun belonged to her dad and that she too will face charges in an incident that caught people in this quiet neighborhood by surprise.