Police charge three in shooting
MOUNT JOY, Pa. (AP) – Three people pulled over in a stolen car on the Pennsylvania Turnpike were charged with shooting a man and abducting his wife and 12-year-old stepson, authorities said. Raymond Gaines, 20, of Harrisburg; Amber Sunshine Griggs, 18, of Shippensburg, and Anthony Davis, 20, of Atlantic City, N.J., were charged Tuesday with aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, kidnapping and conspiracy.
Gaines was also charged with attempted murder in the shooting of 33-year-old David Westervelt.
All three are accused in the violent home invasion of Westervelt’s Lancaster County residence before dawn Monday. State police, who pulled over the trio on Monday afternoon in Chester County, said troopers found a credit card and cell phone taken from the Mount Joy home, as well as a stolen gun.
Chief Ned Ensminger of the Mount Joy Borough Police Department said one of the alleged assailants told police that the Westervelt family was targeted randomly, but added that police may not have uncovered the whole story yet.
“Some things just don’t add up,” Ensminger said.
Court officials said they did not know whether the suspects had attorneys.
Authorities said the trio broke into Westervelt’s home, robbed it and attempted to kidnap Westervelt, his wife, Patricia, and stepson Chad Coble at gunpoint at around 3 a.m. Monday.
They forced the boy into the trunk of their car and forced Patricia Westervelt into the family’s minivan and stole it, authorities said. David Westervelt was shot in the back as he escaped, they said.
A couple of hours later, Coble was released in the parking lot of a Carlisle Wal-Mart. Patricia Westervelt leaped from the speeding minivan on Route 283 in Dauphin County, sustaining cuts and abrasions.
David Westervelt was not seriously injured in the shooting, authorities said. The minivan was found abandoned later Monday in Dauphin County. Police said they had not determined whether the car the suspects were driving on the turnpike was the same one that was used to abduct Coble.
AP-ES-10-04-05 1426EDT