Archive
Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
ShareThis Page
City police capture Melcroft man after foot chase Tuesday | TribLIVE.com
News

City police capture Melcroft man after foot chase Tuesday

Tribune-Review
Tribune-Review | Wednesday, September 21, 2011 12:00 a.m

A Melcroft man is in prison after he fled from a state constable and Connellsville police Tuesday morning.

At 9:40 a.m. Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Constable J.T. Sowers observed Harry Delford Swope, 38, of 305 Fowl Hill Rd., in a Chevrolet Cavalier at the Connellsville McDonalds. When Sowers attempted to serve a warrant on Swope, the man allegedly refused to exit the Cavalier and told the constable that he was going to blow his head off. Police said Swope reportedly reached under the car seat.

Swope then put his Cavalier in reverse and backed into Sower’s vehicle.

Sowers followed Swope to Poplar Street where Swope fled on foot.

The Connellsville Police Department was contacted to check the area. He was found attempting to hide in the weeds in a wooded area behind Poplar Street.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Swope immediately stood up and said he was not going in with anyone and he would turn himself in later.

“I advised him that was not an option at this time and he needed to stop running and come with me,” said Capt. Steven Shaffer with the Connellsville Police, adding that Swope yelled an obscenity and continued to run.

Shaffer, Sowers and other police chased Swope through the wooded area. Swope continued to yell obscenities at officers and also threatened to “split their heads open.”

Swope picked up three large rocks and threw them at police.

Swope was taken into custody a short time later by city police and charged at District Judge Ronald Haggerty Jr.’s office with aggravated assault, simple assault, resisting arrest, terroristic threats, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, driving with a suspended license, improperly backing up a vehicle and reckless driving .

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled at 1:15 p.m. Sept. 29 at Haggerty’s office.

Swope is lodged in the Fayette County Prison in lieu of $15,000 bond.

Categories: News
TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.