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Man injured in shootout with Farrell police | News

FARRELL – A man is being treated at Mercy Health St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown for life-threatening injuries sustained following a shooting early Friday morning in Farrell.

Mercer County District Attorney Peter C. Acker said the man was injured in a shootout with police outside a convenience store on Indiana Avenue in Farrell shortly after midnight. The incident began when a Farrell police officer encountered the man and found that the man, whose identity has not yet been released, was carrying a gun.

Acker said the man did not cooperate with police and refused to put down his weapon. Instead, the man began shooting and the officer returned fire. A second man was also involved in the exchange.

Even after he was wounded, the man refused to hand over the weapon. Acker said the officer also used less-lethal weapons in an attempt to subdue the man. However, it has not yet been determined whether the less-lethal weapons were used before or after the man was wounded.

Acker said the officer was eventually able to recover the weapon. The man was taken to UPMC Horizon Hospital in Farrell and transported by medical helicopter to St. Elizabeth. The district attorney described the man’s injuries as life-threatening.

Acker said state police have taken over the investigation, which is routine when a city police officer gets into a gunfight with someone.

The district attorney said investigators have not yet conclusively determined which shots injured the man.

Detectives from the district attorney’s office are working with state police on the investigation.

The shooting on Indiana Avenue occurred just moments after an earlier, unrelated incident at a home on Emerson Avenue.

Acker said someone shot at the house, allegedly in a drug-related drive-by. That incident, too, remains under investigation.