
A truck driver was shot and killed during an argument at a truck stop in northern Berks County early Friday morning, state police said.
The suspected shooter, also a truck driver, fled after the predawn shooting at Love’s Travel Stop on Mountain Road near the Shartlesville interchange of Interstate 78 in Upper Bern Township, said Trooper David Beohm, Troop L public information officer.
During a news conference Friday afternoon, Capt. Robert L. Bailey identified the victim of the shooting as James Alexander Hilton, 40 of Southampton Township, New Jersey.
The identity of the person accused of the shooting has not yet been released because charges have yet to be filed. Bailey said a state police major case team was investigating the incident Friday afternoon and could not provide a timeline for when charges would be filed.
Troopers said the argument began while the victim was helping another driver park his truck in the rear lot at Love’s. The suspect, who was not the person the victim was helping, became angry, and an argument ensued.
During the argument, the suspect shot the other man.
State police were called to the truck stop at 2:48 a.m., and troopers issued a bulletin calling on law enforcement within a 99-mile radius of the scene to be on the lookout for the suspect’s tractor-trailer.
Troopers from the Fogelsville station spotted the vehicle about 20 miles east of the truck stop at the I-78 New Smithville interchange in western Lehigh County. The driver was on the ramp heading westbound on the interstate. State police followed the truck. They pulled over the driver as he was exiting at the Krumsville interchange and arrested him at 3:31 a.m., Bailey said.
The suspect is in custody at the state police Hamburg station, Beohm said.
Bailey and Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams credited cooperation between state police stations for the quick arrest of the suspect.
“This was just great work,” Adams said at the news conference, pointing out that the crime and arrest took place in the middle of the night in a rural, sparsely populated area. “You have to give accolades to the great teamwork here.”
Reporter David Mekeel contributed to this story.
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