Two Tennessee teenagers involved in a multi-state crime spree that could have turned fatal with guns fired at a Pennsylvania trooper on Sunday are in custody after being apprehended in Schuylkill County.
Two more are still at large after fleeing from a stolen pickup truck, entering a Walmart in Saint Clair, changing clothes, and giving responding police the slip through an emergency escape.
According to arrest papers, the incident began at 12:40 p.m. Sunday in Cumberland County, when a motorist on Interstate 81 reported that someone in a red pickup truck was pointing a gun at her and other drivers.
Pennsylvania State Police found the truck roughly 20 miles to the north.
The truck driver initially pulled over, according to authorities, but then drove away, finally fleeing the highway with state police in pursuit.
According to police, at that time, the truck’s occupants dropped the rear cab window and fired several gunshots at following troopers, striking the closest patrol car in the right headlight.
No cops were injured by the firing.
Police claimed they found three empty bullet casings at the scene.
Escaping back onto 81, the vehicle, which authorities later discovered had been stolen from Tennessee earlier in the week, was tracked by aerial surveillance to Coal Creek Commerce Center in Saint Clair, where the four passengers fled in different directions around 2:15 p.m.
Responding police apprehended 18-year-old Kadence Gooch of Kingsport, Tenn., and a 17-year-old juvenile shortly after in the shopping center vicinity, but the other two occupants managed to enter Walmart and modify their look enough to avoid identification.
Gooch, who told police he was driving the truck the entire time, and the 17-year-old were charged on Monday with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, theft, and other offenses.
Gooch is being jailed without bond at Dauphin County Prison until a preliminary hearing.
Police said the boy will be charged as a juvenile, which means his name and other details of his case will not be made public.
Police are still looking for 17-year-old Jeremiah D. Begley, also from Kingsport, and a second, unidentified youngster, whom the suspects in jail claimed as the shooters.
The descriptions are as follows:
- Begley is 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing about 172 pounds with brownish/auburn hair, and last seen wearing a Nirvana T-shirt
- A white male with darker complexion and a heavier build, last seen wearing grey sweatpants and a black shirt. Police said the suspects in custody only knew him as Chris.
According to court filings, police discovered four pistols, which they think were thrown from the vehicle during the final stages of the chase.
Gooch and the adolescent in prison told police that the quartet began their criminal spree near Pigeon Forge, Tenn., on Saturday night, when they attempted to steal stuff from automobiles.
The gang was on their way to Connecticut when the happenings in Pennsylvania occurred.
A preliminary hearing for Gooch has been scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on March 4 before Magisterial District Judge Dale Klein.