Pennsylvania

Teens Face Charges for Attempted Killings of Pennsylvania Officers

Two suspects face multiple charges of attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer in connection with shots fired — some of them at officers — in central Pennsylvania, authorities said.

"It's quite ... amazing that we don't have multiple dead police officers last night," Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said at a news conference Saturday in the borough of Columbia, calling the attack "senseless" and "chilling."

Officers in the borough were responding to a report of shots fired just before 3:30 a.m. Friday when they reported that their own vehicles had come under fire. Stedman said it's unclear whether a man found at the scene was the initial intended target, but "what's clear is, as the police officers arrived, they are the intended targets."

Officials said four officers from three departments reported being fired upon. None were hurt and none of the officers returned fire. Initially, he said, police didn't know where the shots were coming from, so they set up a perimeter and called in a special emergency response team.

After a 17-year-old was identified as a potential suspect, officers went to a home where he was house-sitting for a relative and found him in a second-floor bedroom with a rifle with a scope next to him, authorities said.

When he was arrested, the youth told officers "I was shooting at you" and then cursed at police, authorities alleged in court documents.

The other suspect, Trenton Nace, 18, was arrested in another bedroom, and officers said he had live rounds and shell casings in a pocket.

Authorities believe the youth was the shooter throughout the incident and Nace was an accomplice supplying bullets and collecting empty shell casings, Stedman said.

The two suspects also face charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy and reckless endangerment. The small-caliber rifle found next to the teenager was owned by a relative and was "legally purchased and possessed," but the youth will also face a charge of possession of a firearm by a minor, authorities said.

Both defendants were arraigned Saturday and ordered held in lieu of $2 million bail each pending an Aug. 12 preliminary hearing. Court documents don't list defense attorneys who could respond to the charges and working phone numbers for the defendants couldn't be found Saturday.

Stedman declined to say whether the case could be related to shots fired at police officers in Lancaster on Wednesday night, but said more details would come next week. No officers were injured in that case.

"The last couple of days in Lancaster County are some of the darkest days we've had in our justice system, for our police officers, that I can recall," he said.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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