NEW CASTLE — Police say a man charged with his fourth drunken driving offense was fleeing police when he smashed into a police cruiser belong to a township where another officer was killed in a similar crash earlier this month.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for 40-year-old Eric Jones, of Scott Township, Lawrence County, who faces a preliminary hearing Thursday in the crash on Friday night.

Jones faces aggravated assault, fleeing police, and drunken driving among 21 charges.

A New Castle newspaper reports police were chasing Jones when he crashed into the cruiser from neighboring Shenango Township. Nobody was hurt.

But on May 2, Shenango Township Officer William “Jerry” McCarthy IV was killed when a driver with a suspended license was also being chased by New Castle police. That woman allegedly rammed McCarthy’s cruiser.