A man from Lancaster County faces felony charges after police say he fired shots Friday afternoon at a box truck leaving the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity before leading police on a 16-mile chaseand crashing in Blairsville.
Tyler J. Mieczkowski, 22, is charged with reckless endangerment of another person, aggravated assault and attempting to elude a police officer, according to court documents.
The Westmoreland District Attorney’s Office, Westmoreland County detectives and police units from Latrobe, Derry and Blairsville assisted Westmoreland County Park police.
“When something like this happens and you have an immediate response from so many departments, you know that you’re in a safer place because of it,” said Westmoreland County Park police Capt. Jeff Shearer.
Mieczkowski fired shots into the windshield of a box truck leaving the airport around 1:15 p.m., according to a police affidavit.
The truck driver told police he was making a delivery to LJ Aviation, located at the airport. After making the delivery, the truck driver was sitting in a parking lot checking his cell phone when he heard a loud pop.
He told police he looked up and saw Mieczkowski pointing a gun at his face. Mieczkowski fired a shot and then moved his car before shooting again.
Henderson was not hurt. After being shot at, he drove the truck in the direction of Route 30 and called police.
Shearer was unable to confirm whether the shooter knew the victim , but he said police “believe this was a specific target.”
When police arrived at the scene around 1:40 p.m., Mieczkowski had fled in a Dodge Charger. State police located the suspect five to 10 minutes later along Route 30 East, Shearer said, and pursued him through Derry and Blairsville.
The car crashed after driving over spike strips placed across the road by police near Blairsville — about 16 miles from the airport. Mieczkowski fled on foot and dropped two live shotgun shells, he but was apprehended shortly after, Shearer said.
Police found a shotgun laying in Mieczkowski’s car which was impounded for further investigation.
Olivia Seich, whose North Walnut Street home is across the corner from where the car was stopped, praised police for their timely response.
“It was a miracle that they stopped (the vehicle) without hitting a telephone pole and before (reaching) the highway,” she said, referring to busy Route 22, which runs through the northern section of Blairsville.
Seich said she was home with her children when they heard the noise stemming from the pursuit before the crash.
“I did not realize it was real,” she said. “It all happened so fast.”
Karen Riggenbach, office manager for the Shoemaker Monument Co. at 49 N. Walnut St., watched the crash unfold from her first-floor office window.
She said she heard sirens from multiple vehicles and the flattened tires moving roughly on the pavement, then the crash.
Riggenbach said the man ran behind the Blairsville Library by the crash scene and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, adjacent to the library.
They tackled him, and it took “several men to pin him down.”
“He was fighting them,” and continued to fight them as they placed him in a police vehicle, Riggenbach said.
Airport grants director Dwayne Pickels said operations there were not affected.
“We were cautiously observing to make sure no one was in danger,” Pickels said. “But it looks as though both vehicles are gone, and the park police are investigating.”
Shearer praised the quick work of all responding police.
“It was very impactful to have such a short response time. Of course, you want to minimize people getting hurt and any kind of further destruction, and the fact that it happened so fast, the (suspect) wasn’t harmed, the victim wasn’t harmed,” Shearer said. “Even with the crash, nobody was harmed in this entire process.”
Mieczkowski was arraigned at 8:45 p.m. Friday He is being held at Westmoreland County Prison without possibility of bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Jan. 8 by District Judge Tamara Mahady.
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