Police Car

A Hagerstown man was charged with driving under the influence of drugs after he backed a pickup truck into a Maryland State Police car Tuesday on Shank Farm Way off Leitersburg Pike, state police said. Michael Wyatt Pettit, 64, of Little Elliott Drive was charged in the incident, according to a news release from Cpl. Chris Barnard. Pettit, driving a Dodge Dakota, turned right from a Weis Market about 8:54 a.m., and north on Shank Farm Way, the release said. The truck crossed into the southbound lane and nearly struck an unmarked state police car. It then swerved back into the northbound lane and passed the unmarked police car, the release said.

An 8-year-old boy has been charged with assaulting his school bus driver, pulling a gearshift of the moving bus and then trying to break out of a moving police cruiser after his arrest, according to a Washington County Sheriff's Department press release. The boy, whose name was withheld because he is a juvenile, was charged with resisting arrest, school: disturbing operations and attempting to manipulate vehicle device with malicious intent, according to the release. The alleged series of incidents occurred after the boy got into an altercation with a classmate while the two were being transported on Bus 399 on Tuesday about 3:15 p.m. in the area of Md. 64 and Trovinger Mill Road, deputies said.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- A 27-year-old Chambersburg man was charged with indecent exposure after two women reported seeing a naked man posing along Pa. 995 Saturday night, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Two 20-year-old women were heading north in the 1000 block of Warm Spring Road, also known as Pa. 995, around 11 p.m. Saturday when they saw a naked man posing against a sign along the roadway, according to an affidavit of probable cause from state police. The women weren't sure what they had seen at first, so they turned around and went back, police said.

A Washington County Sheriff's Office officer hit a guardrail on Interstate 81 on Tuesday morning in an accident that might have been caused by icy conditions, officials said. Washington County Sheriff Douglas W. Mullendore said it appears Tim Atwell encountered black ice when his police car went into the guardrail. Atwell's vehicle sustained minor damage and Atwell was not hurt, according to Mullendore. The accident occurred about 7:30 a.m. at about the 10-mile marker on southbound I-81, a Washington County 911 supervisor said.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Deputies shot a Harpers Ferry, W.Va., man early Wednesday after he fired up to 14 rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle at them and rammed a police car, according to Jefferson County Sheriff William Senseney. [cont. from front page ] Despite being shot by police, Bob Davis continued to go after the deputies, prompting Deputy Ward Sigler to use pepper spray on him, Senseney alleged. Sigler, along with Deputies Earl Ballenger and Richard Jenkins, tackled Davis and handcuffed him outside his house in Shannondale, along W.Va.

Hagerstown Police Department officials say they hope the city’s recent purchase of three off-road motorcycles will help beef up patrols in back alleys and other areas that are too small for police cars to maneuver. Capt. Mark Holtzman said the motorcycles will allow the officers to more effectively patrol alleys, railroad property and several city parks. “It allows the officers to reach areas of the city that don’t get patrolled on a regular basis,” he said. Holtzman said the police department used confiscated drug money to purchase three Suzuki 400s for about $6,000 each from Twigg Cycles on Edgewood Drive.

A Virginia man who police allege robbed the Susquehanna Bank on Frederick Street in Hagerstown Thursday morning was caught after a brief car chase that leveled fences and ended in a field behind Bester Elementary School. Carl Whited, 44, of 168 Rocky Road in Luray, Va., was charged with robbery, armed robbery, assault, reckless endangerment, theft, damage to property, possession of stolen property and failure of vehicle driver to stop after unattended property damage accident, according to a Hagerstown Police Department news release.

Hagerstown Police Department detectives would be allowed to drive their unmarked police vehicles home under a proposal Chief Mark Holtzman made during a Tuesday work session of the City Council. Each of the department's six detectives get called in while off duty an average of 21 times a year, Holtzman told the council. Allowing them to drive the unmarked vehicles home would mean they could respond to a crime scene without first having to switch their personal vehicles for a police car at headquarters, he said.

A Hagerstown Police detective who saw a man walking on North Potomac Street on Tuesday with a ladies' purse - and a woman following him, crying and pointing - stopped and arrested the man, police said. Detective Shawn Schultz was driving an unmarked police car south in the 400 block of North Potomac Street at about 10 a.m. Police said he saw David Charles Thomas Jr., 66, carrying a black purse. As he looked through the purse, Thomas took out a blue change wallet and put into his pants pocket, police said in a news release.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A Martinsburg man is accused of leading police on a chase early Saturday morning that did not stop even after his car collided with a patrol car, Martinsburg Police said. Curtis Lee Smith, 22, of 74 Tamarac St., was being held without bond Saturday at the Eastern Regional Jail. The chase began about 1:35 a.m., when the driver of a red 1988 Pontiac Grand Am with no brake lights refused to stop, police said. As one police car gave chase, the Grand Am was hit broadside by a second police car at the intersection of Burke and Spring streets after failing to stop at a stop sign, police said.

Hagerstown Police Department detectives would be allowed to drive their unmarked police vehicles home under a proposal Chief Mark Holtzman made during a Tuesday work session of the City Council. Each of the department's six detectives get called in while off duty an average of 21 times a year, Holtzman told the council. Allowing them to drive the unmarked vehicles home would mean they could respond to a crime scene without first having to switch their personal vehicles for a police car at headquarters, he said.

A Washington County Sheriff's Office officer hit a guardrail on Interstate 81 on Tuesday morning in an accident that might have been caused by icy conditions, officials said. Washington County Sheriff Douglas W. Mullendore said it appears Tim Atwell encountered black ice when his police car went into the guardrail. Atwell's vehicle sustained minor damage and Atwell was not hurt, according to Mullendore. The accident occurred about 7:30 a.m. at about the 10-mile marker on southbound I-81, a Washington County 911 supervisor said.

The driver of a box truck that police believed was involved Sunday in a hit-and-run crash in Williamsport fled from police after an officer pulled the truck over on Greencastle Pike just north of Williamsport, according to a Washington County Sheriff's Office spokesman. After the officer stopped the driver at about 2:10 p.m., the box truck went backward and struck a sheriff's department cruiser, moving it about 5 feet, Sgt. Robert Whittington said. No police officers were injured when the truck rolled into the police car, police said.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals said in a 2011 judgment that a driver could not be charged for fleeing and eluding a law enforcement officer if that officer was in an unmarked car with lights or sirens. Del Neil Parrott, R-Washington, said Tuesday that he will file a bill that seeks to clarify the issue so that those fleeing such a vehicle can be criminally charged. Sen. Christopher Shank, R-Washington, has filed a similar bill in the State Senate. “If they (law enforcement officers)

A Smithsburg man was charged with driving under the influence and other counts after his vehicle struck a Maryland State Police patrol car Saturday morning in Frederick County, Md., according to a news release from state police in Frederick. Robert John Gery, 19, was charged with DUI, negligent driving and other offenses in the incident, which occurred Saturday at 4:31 a.m. on Raven Rock Road south of Buck Lantz Road, troopers said. Trooper First Class David Zanoni sustained nonlife-threatening injuries in the crash, troopers said.

A Hagerstown man was charged with driving under the influence of drugs after he backed a pickup truck into a Maryland State Police car Tuesday on Shank Farm Way off Leitersburg Pike, state police said. Michael Wyatt Pettit, 64, of Little Elliott Drive was charged in the incident, according to a news release from Cpl. Chris Barnard. Pettit, driving a Dodge Dakota, turned right from a Weis Market about 8:54 a.m., and north on Shank Farm Way, the release said. The truck crossed into the southbound lane and nearly struck an unmarked state police car. It then swerved back into the northbound lane and passed the unmarked police car, the release said.

A Virginia man who police allege robbed the Susquehanna Bank on Frederick Street in Hagerstown Thursday morning was caught after a brief car chase that leveled fences and ended in a field behind Bester Elementary School. Carl Whited, 44, of 168 Rocky Road in Luray, Va., was charged with robbery, armed robbery, assault, reckless endangerment, theft, damage to property, possession of stolen property and failure of vehicle driver to stop after unattended property damage accident, according to a Hagerstown Police Department news release.

Two West Virginia men were in police custody Sunday afternoon following a police pursuit that reached 100 mph and stemmed from an attempted burglary call east of Saint James, south of Hagerstown, Washington County Deputy Alan Matheny said. The suspects fled in a red Kia van that hit at least one vehicle during the pursuit, Matheny said. No one was injured in that accident, police said. The accident occurred at the intersection of Sharpsburg Pike and Lappans Road by the AC&T store, Matheny said.

Hagerstown Police Department officials say they hope the city’s recent purchase of three off-road motorcycles will help beef up patrols in back alleys and other areas that are too small for police cars to maneuver. Capt. Mark Holtzman said the motorcycles will allow the officers to more effectively patrol alleys, railroad property and several city parks. “It allows the officers to reach areas of the city that don’t get patrolled on a regular basis,” he said. Holtzman said the police department used confiscated drug money to purchase three Suzuki 400s for about $6,000 each from Twigg Cycles on Edgewood Drive.

Friday the 13th turned out to be an unlucky day for the Hagerstown Police Department’s kickball team. The city’s finest were dispatched in another way during a Friday afternoon match against the half-pints from Winter Street Elementary School. Fourth-grader Kaytie Banzhoff acknowledged that the officers took it easy on the students, but said: “We handled them.” Second-grade teacher Jen Hardy, who also serves as coordinator of the school’s Positive Behavior Intervention Support program, said five students were chosen from each of the school’s 15 classes to play in the game.