A police officer suffered an electrical shock after he tried to retrieve drugs that a suspect threw on top of a SEPTA train, according to officials.
Police say Cpl. Michael Pitcher, an eight-year veteran with the Morrisville Boro Police Department, was part of a narcotics investigation that also involved Plumstead Township Police and County Detectives. The officers were searching for 26-year-old Dominique Rivers, a man accused of transporting heroin on SEPTA trains from Philadelphia to Doylestown.
Rivers was on a train arriving at the Doylestown SEPTA station Tuesday afternoon, investigators said. When the officers went in to make an arrest Rivers allegedly fled and threw drugs on top of the train. Cpl. Pitcher climbed up a ladder to recover the drugs but suffered an electrical shock once he was on top.
"He thought the train was disabled, turned off," said Morrisville Police Chief George McClay. "He tried to retrieve the narcotics. He was on top of the train and got sucked into the resister and got burned pretty good on his back."
Pitcher suffered second and third degree burns to his body, mostly on his shoulder and back. Officials say he was conscious and alert when medics took him to Temple University Hospital. He is expected to be released Wednesday.
Police apprehended Rivers. He faces several drug charges, including possession with intent to deliver. Police say they recovered 89 bags of heroin from the package Rivers threw on top of the train.
Tuesday's incident was the second time in little more than a year that Pitcher was injured while on the job. On Valentine's Day, 2015, a car thief drove into him in the parking lot of a Morrisville 7-Eleven.
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SEPTA service was shut down between the Doylestown and Link Belt stations. Service later resumed late Tuesday afternoon.
