Police Chase Walnutport!

[Archiver]

NO better example of How being an armed Citizen makes you feel better!



Gunfire initiates Allentown-to-Walnutport police chaseThe sound of gunfire brought police to a stolen sport utility vehicle that led them on a chase from Allentown to Walnutport, where one occupant was captured but two others escaped, Allentown police said.

Several police departments became involved in the search, using dogs and helicopters to scour the area after the three occupants bolted from the vehicle after it was disabled by spike strips set by Lehigh Township police in Walnutport, said Allentown police Lt. Daryl Hendricks.



Lehigh Valley Local Links


Mobile News | Subscribe Online | Order Reprints Police had first found the vehicle at Allen and Meadow streets about 11:15 p.m. after an officer heard shots while making a traffic stop nearby, said Hendricks, adding he did not know who was being shot at or if anything was struck. The vehicle took off after police determined it was stolen and tried to detain it, he said.

The pursuit went north along Route 145 through Whitehall and North Whitehall townships and eventually into Walnutport near Lehigh Township, he said.

Hendricks identified the captured occupant as a 17-year-old boy from Allentown. A passenger in the vehicle, the boy was charged with misdeamenor disorderly conduct, he said. District Judge Maryesther Merlo said police had told her the boy had been released into the custody of his parents.

The driver and the other passenger -- most likely adults -- ran into the woods and remained at large Sunday, Hendricks said.

Reports of their escape generated fear among some residents in the Walnutport-Lehigh Township area who believed that the two were were still in the area and possibly carrying firearms.

Kiki Schock of Lehigh Township said all of her four children were out of the house -- her son and two of her three daughters in Bethlehem with her grandmother and her oldest daughter spending the night with a friend.

"This is a really great place to live and this really shakes you up," she said.

-- reporting by Kirk Jackson, The Morning
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-...,6653717.story

[Archiver]

Further first hand details:
My sister in law was on her way home from work on rt 145 during the chase and had NO idea it would end 2 blocks from her house! She actually went back to work she was so scared(she doesnt yet carry).

She called my father in law enroute to her house and he in turn called me and we listened on the scanner.
One thing was pretty clear the police seemed OVERWELMED by this pursuit.Not blaming them one bit...stuff like that just didnt happen much until they finished rt78 and thereby opened up the Newark-Allentown Drug Route!)

Listening in was scary. Police from as far as Forks Township were responding! The vehicle was headed right for a cruiser ahead...BUT.... the spike strips were in another cruiser! When they finally deployed the strips they wanted to chase them into the woods but the Walnutport Chief ordered them to wait for backup. There were only 2 officers and 2 BG's and they were apparently armed!

Then a lady called and reported men in her backyard,they responded and also called in a Chopper from Reading with Infrared and all.... but couldnt find them.


This stuff just gets worse and worse lately and makes me glad we're armed. Police just cant be everywhere. (Not expected to be either)

Last month 2 guys ran from a Trooper and were seen a few blocks away from our house running onto the LehighGapMountain. When our mailman said he saw them and also erroneously reported the Trooper as being shot while we were working in the yard....the little Keltec .380 I always carry just seemed too "light". My wife kept hers but I "upgraded" to a .40 Caliber Beretta!
Scary what may have happened if we were unlucky enough to not be warned and they had come our way...desperate people do dumb things!
Between all these incidents I'm thinking about just leaving the scanner on! Forewarned is forearmed!

[theshadow]

Between all these incidents I'm thinking about just leaving the scanner on! Forewarned is forearmed!

I'd leave teh scanner on, and a 12GA, or carbine of some sort readily accessable (even though you have your carry piece, use that to get to the higher firepower).

[aubie515]

I was just in Walnutport yesterday...very interesting.

[billamj]

I was just in Walnutport yesterday...very interesting.

So what did you do that ticked the cops off so much?

[Archiver]

(even though you have your carry piece, use that to get to the higher firepower).

Yup...what is it they say?..."a handgun is only to get you back to the rifle you should have never put down in the first place"!