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Chase ends with gunfire, crash

Trooper, suspect sustain injuries

BEDFORD — A state police trooper and a suspect were injured early Saturday in a Bedford car chase that included gunfire and ended with a violent crash.

Police said the suspect — a 35-year-old Schellsburg man whose name has not yet been released — fled police after an encounter on Route 30. Police did not cite the reason for the initial stop, which took place about 3:25 a.m.

The suspect allegedly fled through Bedford Borough before troopers again contacted him on North Richard Street. The driver accelerated toward a state trooper standing outside his cruiser, prompting police to fire on him, troopers said in a news release.

At some point during the chase, the suspect allegedly struck a trooper, causing a broken arm and a leg injury.

The chase continued up North Richard Street, a section of Business Route 220 that connects Bedford Borough with a highway and turnpike interchange two miles to the north.

During the pursuit, police initiated what they called a “legal intervention on the fleeing vehicle.” The term refers to a ramming or fishtailing maneuver that causes a suspect’s vehicle to spin out of control.

The suspect’s car crashed into a business sign and came to a stop, leaving the driver with serious but nonlife-threatening injuries, troopers said.

A sign for Hickey’s Automotive & Towing, formerly Ressler’s Auto­motive & Towing, could be seen smashed and nearly knocked over Saturday afternoon, although it is unclear whether that sign was the one that ultimately stopped the car.

Several neighbors and nearby business owners Saturday afternoon said they slept through the incident, awakening to police lights and lane closures that lasted into midday.

Some reported hearing gunshots, or speaking to acquaintances who heard them.

“I looked out and saw Christmas lights,” Edward Layton of Sunnyside Road said, referring to flashing police lights. “I said, ‘Holy hell.'”

Layton said police had North Richard Street closed for hours as forensic investigators pried off chunks of a nearby building, apparently to secure slugs lodged in the walls. A former military recruiting office at the intersection of Sunnyside Road and North Richard Street, now closed, showed signs of the investigation, with several pieces of the outer wall cut away.

Police said their bullets didn’t strike the driver, whose injuries were attributed to the crash.

Charges have not yet been listed in the case, but state police indicated they could include fleeing and eluding officers and aggravated assault. The suspect’s name will be released when charges are filed, police said.

Mirror Staff Writer Ryan Brown is at 946-7457.

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