dme court

EVANS CITY — A Carnegie man reportedly caused more than $11,000 in damage when he struck two police vehicles while attempting to flee from police, an Adams Township officer testified in a Wednesday, Sept. 3, preliminary hearing.

Matthew Richard Thompson, 35, saw one felony charge each of aggravated assault, escape and flight to avoid apprehension; two misdemeanor charges of accident involving damage and one misdemeanor charge of fleeing police held for court by District Judge Amy Marcinkiewicz following the hearing.

Adams Township Sgt. Ed Lenz testified he received a call Aug. 27 from Northern Regional police asking for assistance in serving warrants to Thompson on behalf of an investigation by Castle Shannon police.

Lenz said Thompson had multiple warrants out of Allegheny County, including one for felony child endangerment, and was considered armed and dangerous.

Lenz said police located Thompson’s vehicle at Continental Construction, where he was employed. Lenz said police knew Thompson left his workplace at 4 p.m. each day. The plan was to arrest Thompson on his way to his vehicle, but it was unsuccessful.

A site superintendent located Thompson entering his vehicle and informed police, Lenz said.

Thompson and his vehicle were located driving toward the exit of the site. Lenz said as Thompson was pulling toward the exit, Lenz drove his vehicle between Thompson’s and the exit and activated his emergency lights.

Lenz said he began giving commands with his gun drawn. A Northern Regional police officer pulled a vehicle behind Thompson’s as well, but Lenz said Thompson was not boxed in and fled the scene.

Lenz said as the Northern Regional vehicle, which had three officers inside, was pulling behind Thompson, he, at the same time, put his vehicle in reverse and struck the vehicle.

Lenz did not have an estimate for the damage caused to the Northern Regional vehicle.

Lenz said after striking the police vehicle, Thompson put the car in drive and drove over a hill toward the exit. The vehicle left Lenz’s sight at that point.

Lenz said he learned Thompson was driving down the hill toward more Adams Township and Northern Regional police. He said Thompson drove down the hill and struck an Adams Township police vehicle with one officer inside.

Thompson then drove back up the hillside onto a rocky embankment where he stopped the vehicle and was apprehended, Lenz said. While being apprehended, one of the officers slipped on the rocks and injured a knee and elbow.

Lenz said the entire incident at the construction site lasted about 30 minutes. He saw body camera and dash camera footage of the second police vehicle being struck.

Lenz said the damage to the Adams Township vehicle cost about $11,000.

Thompson’s formal arraignment is scheduled for 1 p.m. Oct. 21 in Butler County Common Pleas Court.