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SCRANTON
Five killed in snowy I-81 crash
Five women from New York were killed when a tractor-trailer struck people at the scene of a crashed minivan on Interstate 81 in snowy northeastern Pennsylvania, state police said Wednesday.
The minivan, carrying four women, went out of control in the northbound lanes of I-81 in Lackawanna County, hit a concrete barrier and was left disabled in the left lane shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, police said. A sedan carrying two of their relatives then stopped on the right shoulder, and both occupants crossed both lanes to talk with the minivan's occupants, police said.
A northbound tractor-trailer then hit the minivan and also struck the people standing on the highway, killing three of them, and two people inside the minivan were also killed, police said.
The 22-year-old man who had been driving the sedan had moderate injuries and the truck driver had minor injuries, police said.
SCRANTON
Man charged in shooting of officer
Authorities have announced charges against a man in what they called an ambush-style shooting that critically wounded a police officer in northeastern Pennsylvania last week.
Aiden Gabriel Deininger, 20, of Old Forge is charged in Lackawanna County with three counts of attempted homicide of law enforcement officers, criminal homicide and other charges in the shooting of a Scranton police detective about 4:30 a.m. Thursday.
Officials said three Scranton police detectives were sitting in an unmarked police vehicle on the city's west side because they had information that a shooting was about to occur. Authorities said the suspect, later identified as Deininger, spotted the police vehicle and fired five rounds into it, hitting police Detective Kyle Gilmartin twice in the head.
Another officer returned fire five times, hitting the suspect, who collapsed nearby. Officers rushed the wounded officer in a patrol vehicle to Geisinger Medical Center, and the suspect was also taken to the hospital, authorities said.