WARREN - A suspected member of an eastside youth gang with a violent history is believed to be part of a group that sent three teenagers to the hospital Saturday evening.
The male, who witnesses told police was part of the Savages gang, pointed a handgun at the three teens while two others assaulted them and stole items.
"They are definitely active," said Warren police Detective Michael Currington.
Local authorities said the Savages are one of four gangs that operate in the city.
The Savages mainly operate on the city's eastside and are led by Don-Tay Johnson, who broke out of his cell at the Juvenile Justice Center Aug. 15 and eluded law enforcement for nine days. Johnson was caught last week in Youngstown and faces felony charges of assaulting a police officer and escape. Johnson is accused of breaking out of his cell, rushing the control room and along with another inmate beating a female corrections officer before escaping.
Johnson had previously been charged several times with violent robberies.
The gang emerged on law enforcement's radar in July 2010, when a feud between the Savages and another youth gang, the Five-Point Stars, culminated in the brutal baseball bat beating of a 16-year-old boy caught on video. The beating left him with permanent brain damage.
In the most recent incident, two 17-year-old boys and a teenage girl were near St. Pius X Church, 1401 Moncrest Drive N.W., when three males rode past them on bicycles.
Reports said the male trio asked the others if they wanted to take drugs. They declined, and a fight ensued.
Reports said one 17-year-old boy was knocked off his bike, which was stolen. A second male assaulted the other two teens, while one male pointed a black handgun.
All three teen victims were taken to St. Joseph Health Center where they were treated for minor injuries.
One of the three teens told police he recognized the male holding the gun as a member of the Savages gang.
"We've got stuff on them," Currington said. "But we're looking at all the gangs."
The mother of the 14-year-old girl, who asked not to be named for fear the gang would retaliate against her daughter, said her daughter and her two friends were walking less than a half-block back to her home so the girl could change clothes. She said the three were going to watch movies and play video games.
But on the way they ran into the three, and her daughter was struck twice in the head and thrown on to the concrete, hitting her head again.
The mother said her daughter doesn't remember much of the attack and that doctors said she didn't suffer a concussion.
"I don't understand how these kids get guns," she said. "It's scary. It was 9 p.m. It wasn't even after curfew and it wasn't like they were out looking for trouble. We don't even live that far away. Now she doesn't want to be out in the dark anymore because you don't know what's going to happen."
In the earlier baseball bat beating incident, Johntee Daniel, 17, was sentenced to serve two years in the Ohio Department of Youth Services on two counts of felonious assault for violently striking then 15-year-old Verdarell Lowery in the back of the head with a baseball bat.
Police at the time believed Daniel was with the Five-Point Stars gang, and that Lowery was with a group of people, some of whom were members of the Savages.
''This gang showed up before threatening everyone. They called themselves Savages. They had tattoos and everything,'' Daniel's grandmother Patricia Mallory said in November. ''There was trouble at parties and in school. They had guns in bookbags.''
Warren police arrested the three teens after obtaining a cell phone video of Lowery being struck.
"That's the first time we formally knew they were out there," Currington said. "There's a ton of them."
Multiple accounts of teenagers assaulting teenagers and adults and robbing them have been reported throughout the summer, though it's unclear if the four gangs are responsible.