Police raid comes up empty
A Uniontown man wanted on charges of aggravated assault and kidnapping was able to elude dozens of police officers during a raid on a Pershing Court apartment Tuesday.
A Uniontown man wanted on charges of aggravated assault and kidnapping was able to elude dozens of police officers during a raid on a Pershing Court apartment Tuesday.
Uniontown police, acting on multiple tips from confidential sources initially converged on 51 Pershing Court in search of Keith Aaron Thomas.
Thomas is accused of assaulting and kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, Monique Sheri King, 23, of Menallen Township, from her home in late January and then leading police on a chase through Uniontown after King was able to escape his vehicle.
Thomas also is accused of ramming a state police cruiser with his vehicle injuring state police trooper George Mrosko.
Thomas, 21, of 44 Lemon St. was believed to be in the Pershing Court apartment Tuesday afternoon, according to Officer Thomas Kolencik.
Kolencik said officers from Uniontown searched the residence with permission from the tenant but were not able to locate Thomas.
However, Kolencik said police did discover a baggie of cocaine and a bulletproof vest in another residence searched in the housing complex.
Soon after the initial search, dozens of state police troopers and officers from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department swarmed the project armed with assault rifles and shotguns.
Kolencik said police did make contact with Thomas by phone and had what Kolencik described as a “civil” conversation during which Thomas considered turning himself in.
It was not known where Thomas was when the call was made.
Kolencik said it was not clear if Thomas had been at the housing complex but Detective Jason A. Cox said investigators were reviewing surveillance video to try to verify if Thomas was at the project.
Police have been searching for Thomas since Jan. 24 when Magisterial District Judge Joseph M. George Jr. issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, simple assault, terroristic threats, fleeing and eluding police and two counts of criminal mischief.
According to the criminal complaint filed in the case by trooper John Marshall, the incident began when King answered the door of her Searights Village home in Menallen Township around 10 a.m. and Thomas began to argue with her.
King told investigators Thomas eventually began to choke her and rammed her head through the bathroom wall, police said.
Marshall said Thomas then pulled King by her hair from the home and forced her into the van where he continued to punch her in the face with his fist any time she cried or screamed.
After driving to Uniontown, King told police that Thomas noticed Mrosko in an unmarked police car behind the van and forced King down onto the seat by her hair, police said.
King was able to reach the passenger door handle as the van slowed for the stop sign at the intersection of South Mt. Vernon Avenue and Lebanon Avenue in South Union Township and escape the van.
According to police, King began to scream for help and was seen and heard by Mrosko.
Police said Mrosko initiated his emergency lights and Thomas accelerated through the intersection.
Mrosko pursued Thomas’s vehicle through city streets and alleys for eight or nine minutes at high rates of speed, according to police.
After reaching what appeared to be a dead end, police said Thomas then put the van into reverse and rammed the front of Mrosko’s vehicle, disabling it and injuring the trooper’s left arm.
Thomas then fled the scene by traveling up a grassy embankment and driving through a fence, police said. A short time after the collision, police recovered Thomas’s vehicle on Tuskegee Terrace where witnesses told police that Thomas was met by a white minivan and a maroon Pontiac Grand Am, police said.
Mrosko was treated at Uniontown Hospital for injuries to his left arm.
King was taken to the Uniontown Hospital, with injuries to her face and neck, according to police.
Fayette County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of as much as $1,000 for information leading to Thomas’s apprehension.
Thomas is described as a black man, about 6 feet tall and weighing about 190 pounds with a distinct scar over his left eye, police said.
Anyone with information regarding Thomas’s whereabouts can call the state police at 724-439-7111.