High Speed Chase and Shooting in Snyder County
By Sean Bolen & Andy Hirsch
A man is in serious condition after being shot by state troopers early Friday morning. The shooting happened after he led officers on a high-speed chase in Snyder County.
Investigators say they were called several times to an apartment in the village of Salem in Penn Township, near Selinsgrove. Women there claimed they were being stalked and harassed by George Foust, 30.
The women live on the third floor of an apartment building on Salem Street. Neighbor Gary Newcomer lives in the same building and heard everything very early Friday morning.
"He just said 'I can't live without you'. He goes, 'I'm going to kill myself'," Newcomer said. He never saw the man before but after hearing the shouts, Newcomer didn't want him hanging around.
"I told him, 'I think you ought to leave. You're disturbing the people in the building complex here'," Newcomer recounted.
One of the women said her roommate dated Foust for about three months although they had known each other for years. She said Foust did leave when Newcomer asked, but came back at least six times. He even threatened the women.
"I was worried for them because the threats he was causing, like terrorist threats, 'I'm going to kill you' and other words I'm not going to say," Newcomer added.
The third time officers showed up, they spotted Foust. He took off, leading them on a chase that ended 20 miles away along Route 235 in Beaver Springs.
State police say troopers used a cruiser to push Foust's car off the road. Once it was stopped, Foust tried to get away by ramming a trooper's car.
"The car backed up and rammed the state police vehicle as the driver, the trooper tried to exit the vehicle so he had to quickly jump back into the vehicle to avoid being struck," said Trooper Matthew Burrow.
Foust then rammed a Selinsgrove police car. That's when two state troopers opened fire on Foust, hitting him an unknown number of times. He still resisted arrest and had to be pulled out of the car.
People who live nearby saw the last few seconds of the violence. "Basically they took the person out of the vehicle and put him in an ambulance and life-flighted him," said neighbor Dale Pyle. There is no word on Foust's condition.
Route 235 in Beaver Springs was closed all morning. The stretch of road where the shooting happened opened just before noon.
The Snyder County district attorney says he believes the shooting was justified because the officers lives were in danger when Foust rammed their cars.
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State Police Shootings
By Scott Schaffer
Friday's shooting involving state police and a stalking suspect who led them on a high speed chase is the fourth shooting involving state police since December.
The violent run for state police in our area started, ironically, on Christmas Eve. Troopers responded to a home on Orchard Street in Newport Township. There Howard Post, 32, met them on the porch. Officers said he carried a shotgun.
Post allegedly attacked the woman inside the home, an ex-girlfriend, and threatened to kill her and her three children. "Everything that I viewed about this matter indicates to me that there's nothing to show that these two state troopers acted in any way other than professionally, competently and justifiably," Luzerne County District Attorney Dave Lupas said at the time.
Almost two months later gunshots rang out again, this time in Forty Fort. Emergency crews responded to a home on River Street on a report of a man having a heart attack. When police arrived, they said William Hinkle, 40, attacked them with a chain saw. Hinkle was killed in a hail of gunfire. Seventeen of the more than 30 bullets that were fired hit their mark.
"He was given verbal warnings. Mace was utilized. One officer even brought out a baton but his actions left officers no other choice," said Lupas on the day of that shooting.
On Wednesday, Ryan DeAndrea, 22, was killed by troopers after a high-speed chase that ended on Interstate 81 in lower Luzerne County. State police say DeAndrea hijacked a car in Hazleton, and exchanged gunfire with troopers at his ex-girlfriend's home before fleeing in the car he allegedly stole.
"I am not aware of anything to indicate that the officers did anything wrong or unjustifiably," the district attorney said Wednesday.
While state police in Harrisburg do not keep statistics about how often state troopers are involved in shootings, a spokeswoman said three shootings in one county in such a short period of time is unusual.
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