Bucks cop catches drug suspect, is shocked by train wires
The culmination of a weeks-long heroin sting was almost derailed Tuesday when an officer pursuing the suspect off a Philly-to-Doylestown train touched SEPTA's overhead power lines and was badly jolted. The officer was hospitalized and the suspect was caught.
The culmination of a weeks-long heroin sting was almost derailed Tuesday when an officer pursuing the suspect off a Philly-to-Doylestown train touched SEPTA's overhead power lines and was badly jolted. The officer was hospitalized and the suspect was caught.
The dramatic incident happened about 3 p.m. at the Doylestown Regional Rail station.
Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said the injured officer, Cpl. Michael Pitcher of the Morrisville Borough Police Department, was part of a county drug task force that had been investigating a man suspected of bringing heroin on the train from Philadelphia to Doylestown.
On Tuesday, the Plumstead Township Police Department developed a lead that the man was coming up to Doylestown on the train again, Heckler said.
So, the task force decided, "this was the day we would take him down," Heckler said.
After the suspect got off the train, he seemed to realize what was happening, and "takes off sprinting," Heckler said.
As he was running, "he threw the bundles of what we believe to be narcotics on the roof of the train," the D.A. said.
Morrisville Police Chief George McClay said Pitcher, who was not in uniform, caught the suspect, handed him to another officer and then went to retrieve the package.
He "went up the ladder of the train and got too close to something, a live wire, and got a bad shock," said Heckler.
McClay said Pitcher, a nine-year veteran, suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns to his arms and back, which made contact with the wire. His injuries were not life-threatening.
Heckler said Pitcher was flown by helicopter to Temple University Hospital, where he was expected to remain overnight. County detectives took the officer's wife to the hospital.
The suspect, Dominique McLean Rivers, 27 and known as "Reem," was arrested and charged with possession with intent to deliver and delivery of a controlled substance, Heckler said.
Heckler said officers recovered 6 1/2 bundles of heroin from the roof of the train. Investigators were "a little disappointed" because it was a smaller quantity than what the suspect usually brought, Heckler said.
"He wasn't coming up to serve one junkie," Heckler said.
Bundles previously bought by undercover investigators near the Doylestown train station tested positive for heroin, Heckler said.
Andrew Busch, a SEPTA spokesman, said the incident disrupted train service for about two hours on the Lansdale-Doylestown line between the Doylestown station and Delaware Valley University on Butler Avenue. Service was restored about 5 p.m.
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