Former state trooper fatally shot after killing 2 in Pa. Turnpike holdup, police say
Former Pa. state trooper shot dead by police after allegedly killing 2 during turnpike toll-booth robbery
(about 4 hours later)
A retired state trooper killed a turnpike toll collector and a security guard in a holdup at a toll plaza and then was fatally shot by troopers while trying to escape with the money, authorities said.
A former Pennsylvania state trooper allegedly shot and killed two people Sunday morning while trying to rob a turnpike interchange before being killed by police.
Clarence Briggs, who retired four years ago, confronted two Pennsylvania Turnpike toll collectors with a handgun on Sunday morning at the Fort Littleton toll plaza in Dublin Township, 65 miles west of Harrisburg, the state capital, police said. Briggs ordered both into an adjoining office and tried to tie them up but fled after a struggle, they said. The employees left the building as a fare collection vehicle arrived and a security guard emerged, according to officials.
Authorities said Clarence D. Briggs, a 55-year-old man who retired from the state police in 2012, showed up at the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Fort Littleton interchange just before 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning. He allegedly threatened two employees in a toll booth with a gun, ordering them inside the turnpike office building. Once inside, he allegedly tried to tie them up. But, after a struggle, he fled.
Briggs then shot and killed one of the toll collectors, Daniel Crouse, who had been on the job for less than three months, and Ronald Heist, a retired York police officer who was employed by a detective agency and was working as turnpike security, Capt. David Cain said.
Meanwhile, a fare collection vehicle had arrived at the interchange. Once outside, Briggs allegedly killed Daniel Crouse, a Turnpike employee, and Ronald Heist, a security guard for the collection vehicle. He then began firing at the collection vehicle as its driver fled.
He then fired at the fare collection vehicle, Cain said, and after the driver fled, Briggs jumped into the vehicle and drove it to his car. Briggs started unloading money from the collection vehicle, Cain said.
Briggs then got behind the wheel and drove the vehicle a short distance to his own car, which he allegedly started loading with stolen money. But state troopers soon arrived on the scene, and exchanged fire with Briggs, killing him.
Troopers arrived within minutes, and the first trooper exchanged shots with Briggs, who was wounded and died at the scene, according to police.
“Today we lost two members of the turnpike family and extended family in a hold-up attempt,” Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Chairman Sean Logan said Sunday at a press conference.
Briggs, who was from Newville, retired in January 2012 after 26 years with an honorable discharge from the Newville station of Troop T in Cumberland County, which is part of the turnpike system. Cain, the commander of Troop T, said it was possible that Briggs had been waiting for the collection vehicle, but he declined to comment on whether an investigation was focusing on the retired trooper’s familiarity with turnpike operations and collection procedures.
Sean Logan, chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, said at a news conference that officials will “expend whatever resources necessary and make sure we find out exactly what transpired this morning and to make absolutely certain that our system is secure and that our employees are protected.”
The Fort Littleton turnpike interchange.
He said such an event had happened only “a handful of times” in the 75-year history of the turnpike.
— Associated Press
Spring in the United States is kicking off with a reminder of what late winter can do, as snow was set to fall from eastern New Jersey and parts of New York’s Long Island north into Boston late Sunday into Monday, with Canada’s Maritime provinces also feeling the chill.
The heaviest snow, as much as six to eight inches, was forecast from eastern Long Island to southeastern Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service. Coastal areas of New Jersey may get three inches, and New York could get about an inch.
“It’s not a major system, just a nice little wake-up call that spring isn’t in full effect yet,” said Rich Otto, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md. The heaviest snow will fall Monday near Boston, he said.
Spring may have begun Sunday, but winter storm warnings, watches and advisories stretched from New Jersey to Maine.
The wintry weather wasn’t confined to the Atlantic Coast, though, as a freeze warning was posted from northern Texas to western North Carolina. The unseasonal blast of subfreezing air, which could kill or damage sensitive crops and plants, swept through Oklahoma and parts of Texas on Sunday, the weather service said.
Temperatures in Little Rock were expected to drop to 32 degrees on Sunday and as low as 28 degrees in Asheville, in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the Weather Service said.
Along the East Coast, the snow-toting storm is developing off the Mid-Atlantic, and snow was expected to spread into New Jersey and Long Island on Sunday night before reaching Massachusetts by Monday morning, Otto said.
In Boston, temperatures were expected to dip below freezing overnight and then rise in the morning, which could keep snow accumulations down, he said.
— Bloomberg News
Sea otters spotted off Southern California coast: The rare sighting of a sea otter swimming off the coast of Southern California has scientists hoping it’s a sign of a resurgence for the creatures that were once hunted to near extinction. The Orange County Register reported Saturday that two employees of the Crystal Cove Alliance spotted the sea otter last week near Laguna Beach. Julianne Steers, director of husbandry at the Ocean Institute, told the newspaper it’s possible that the mammals are returning to Southern California because they are chasing a food source there. Steers said there also has been word of sightings near San Clemente and San Mateo. Sea otters were listed as an endangered species in 1973. A sighting off Laguna in 2011 was the first in three decades.
