Teen Faces Drugs, Weapons Charges After Chase

Police: Car driven by 15-year-old briefly became airborne

By Staff Reports
The Tube City Almanac
August 22, 2020
Posted in: Crime and Police News

A Clairton teen-ager faces a long list of charges — including for weapon and drug violations — after police said he crashed into a McKeesport patrol car, then led officers on a chase through Duquesne, West Mifflin, Dravosburg and Glassport.

McKeesport police said the car driven by the 15-year-old boy traveled down Route 837 at speeds well in excess of the posted limit, going airborne on several occasions, and causing officers to stop pursuing for safety reasons.

According to police reports, officers on routine patrol near Crawford Village on the night of Aug. 11 noticed a vehicle with darkly tinted windows in a parking lot. When the officers approached the vehicle, it drove away, police said.

Police followed and stopped the vehicle on Brownlee Avenue, but as an officer walked to the driver’s window to ask for information, the driver put the car into reverse, striking the patrol car.

The driver fled at a high rate of speed onto Pirl Street, and then onto East Fifth Avenue, police said.

After the driver made an illegal U-turn, police said, his car collided with the patrol car again at the entrance to the McKeesport-Duquesne Bridge, then went across the bridge into Duquesne and turned onto Route 837, heading south.

McKeesport police said the fleeing car left the pavement at several points due to its high rate of speed and the dips in the roadway, and officers decided to stop the pursuit.

Approximately two minutes later, McKeesport police said another officer spotted the vehicle on the Mansfield Bridge, headed toward Glassport.

Glassport and Clairton police officers then began pursuing the vehicle, McKeesport police said.

Clairton and Glassport officers captured the driver in the 300 block of North Fourth Street after he abandoned the car and fled on foot through a residential area, at one point running through a back yard while a woman and her two children were swimming in their pool, according to a report.

Police said the youth was carrying a blue drawstring bag, which he dropped in one of the back yards. The bag was recovered by a McKeesport police K-9 officer and contained two handguns — one of them a plastic “Polymer 80” with no serial number — as well as suspected crack cocaine, suspected marijuana, a digital scale and $162 in cash.

McKeesport police said the driver was taken to Shuman Juvenile Detention Center and charged with two counts of possession of controlled substances, two counts of possession with intent to deliver, two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm by a minor, fleeing and eluding police and multiple traffic violations.

Originally published August 22, 2020.

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