Teen Charged Following Dirt-Bike Chase, Crash

By Staff Reports
The Tube City Almanac
September 04, 2019
Posted in: Crime and Police News

A 17-year-old city teen-ager was arrested after McKeesport police alleged he drove an unlicensed dirt bike at high speeds on the Great Allegheny Passage.

The youth, whose name was not released by police, was charged after he lost control of the dirt bike and collided with a patrol car near the corner of Market Street and 11th Avenue on the afternoon of Aug. 24.

Following treatment at UPMC McKeesport hospital for a leg injury, the suspect was transported to Shuman Juvenile Detention Center for processing, police said.

McKeesport police said an officer was in a marked patrol car just before 3 p.m., waiting for two bicyclists to pass on Fourth Avenue, Downtown, when a dirt bike went around them at a "high rate of speed," narrowly missing both the car and the bicycles.

The dirt bike then continued onto the bike trail, from which motorized vehicles are prohibited, police said.

The officer paced the dirt bike on Water Street and signaled for the rider to stop, but police said the rider shook his head "no" and fled down the trail, behind Kane Center.

Additional officers responded and watched the dirt bike cross the baseball field at Harrison Village, flee behind one of the townhouse buildings and up 13th Avenue. Police said they stopped following the dirt bike for fear that continuing the pursuit was too dangerous.

A few minutes later, as the first officer was leaving the scene, police said the dirt bike approached his patrol car from the opposite direction. Police said it appeared that the rider was attempting to flee into a gravel parking lot, but the bike went out of control and struck the front of the patrol car, sending the rider over the handlebars.

The rider was taken to the emergency room by McKeesport Ambulance Rescue Service, police said.

Police said the rider did not have a valid driver's license and the dirt bike was not equipped or registered for on-road use.

The rider was charged with fleeing or attempting to elude police, recklessly endangering other persons, disorderly conduct, driving with a suspended license, driving an unregistered vehicle, driving at unsafe speeds and reckless driving.

Police said a 34-year-old woman, identified as the suspect's mother, also was charged after officers accused of her creating a disturbance at the accident scene, including pulling down her pants to "moon" the responding officers and the crowd.

The woman was charged by McKeesport police with obstruction of justice, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and open lewdness. She is free on her own recognizance pending a preliminary hearing Sept. 9 before Magisterial District Judge Eugene Riazzi, court documents indicate.

Originally published September 04, 2019.

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