Three male juveniles have been arrested for allegedly shooting a man in the face with a BB pistol and shooting out windows on cars this weekend.

The incidents occurred early Sunday morning. The arrests were made on Monday.

“We received calls about windows being out on two cars; windshields, side windows,” said IPD detective Captain Joe Ross. “There was damage to the cars as well.”

The calls came in around 3 a.m. from the 300 block of Eighth Street and the 500 block of Ninth Street.

He said the department had also taken a report from a man who said he was out walking around Beechwood Park and the juveniles shot him in the face with the BB gun.

“The boys had approached him and befriended him. They were walking with him a little bit. Then they assaulted him by shooting him with the BB gun,” Ross said, adding they didn’t steal anything. “As far as we can tell right now, it was just some game they were playing.”

Arrested were one 15-year-old and two 16-year-olds. They were charged with second-degree felony assault and two counts of criminal damaging. All three are Ironton residents and were in court on Tuesday morning. The names of juvenile offenders are generally not released to the public.

Ross said that social media played a big part in the arrests.

“I want to thank the public for their social media posts,” he said. “They had video of the three walking around at night and we gathered video evidence from people that led to these arrests.”

He said further arrests may happen.

“This has been an ongoing problem for us,” Ross said. “There is a little group that has been going around and terrorizing the city. And not only are they damaging people’s cars, they have been destroying city property like the flower pots and things in the parks. The three we arrested are not the only part of this group. Hopefully, in the future, we will have more arrests.”

Ross said the department has gotten reports, but it is hard to press charges without proof like videos of them in the act of destruction.

“These juveniles are out at 3 a.m. and bored, I guess, and causing damage,” he said. “We are in the process of investigating these individuals for other crimes.”

If anyone has information about this case or has had damage to their car from a BB gun this weekend, they can call Ross at 740-532-5606.