An Austintown man is jailed after allegedly telling police he fired shots from an apartment balcony to exercise his 5th amendment rights.

Matthew McClintock, 33, is scheduled for arraignment in county court Wednesday to answer charges following his arrest on Sunday afternoon at the Hillbrook Apartments.

Answering a report that someone was firing a gun from an apartment balcony, officers say they heard a loud bang not far from their cruiser along Raccoon Road.

Police say they saw a man and a woman withdraw into a third-floor apartment as they approached the complex, which is across the street from the Austintown Branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, and not far from Fitch High School.

Inside the apartment, officers found McClintock along with a woman and her two daughters, ages 11 and 4.

The woman, who told officers that McClintock had been drinking Red’s Wicked Apple Beer, said that she asked McClintock not to fire the weapon at the apartment, but to go to a gun range.

Police found the gun in an unlocked safe, hidden under some clothing in a basket.  They also say they found two magazines, one with 13 rounds and another holding three rounds.  A bullet was jammed in the gun.

There were five spent shell casings near the apartment window, according to the police report.

Claiming at first that the sounds of explosions came from fireworks, McClintock later said that the gun accidentally discharged while he was clearing the weapon.

Police say McClintock admitted drinking two or three beers,

Asked why he was handling a gun while he was drinking, Police say McClintock told them he was going to exercise his 5th amendment rights.

He also told police that he “backs the blue” and did not want officers to kill him, according to the police report.

McClintock was booked into the county jail on charges of using a weapon while intoxicated, endangering children, and discharging a firearm on, or near a prohibited premise.