Pittsburgh police officer hit by car during arrest attempt

A Pittsburgh police officer was injured on Tuesday after police said he was struck by a car driven by a fleeing suspect in the city’s Beltzhoover neighborhood.

The suspect, identified as William Skinner, 36, was arrested a short time later on the South Side after a brief manhunt.

The injured officer, who was in uniform, was helping plainclothes detectives in a burglary investigation.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto said the officer suffered leg and head injuries but is stable and expected to fully recover.

Scirotto said he could not release the names of the involved officers.

Allegheny County 911 said the incident began around 12:30 p.m.

Officers from the Zone 3 station were trying to arrest Skinner in the 400 block of Althea Street in Pittsburgh’s Knoxville section in connection with four burglaries, including one Monday night, the chief said.

The suspect refused to surrender, put his car in gear and pulled out, striking the officer, Scirotto said.

Officers shot at the driver but didn’t strike him, the chief said.

At some point, the suspect abandoned the car and made his way to the Red, White and Blue thrift store on Saw Mill Run Boulevard and Bausman Street.

A 911 caller said the man attempted to take money from the cash register, Scirotto said, before fleeing again.

An unwitting driver then agreed to take the suspect to the South Side, Scirotto said, where the man was taken into custody around 1:45 p.m.

He was arrested on the railroad tracks that run parallel to McCardle Roadway behind Cupples Stadium, the chief said.

Lloyd Wagner, who works at the Red, White and Blue thrift store on Route 51 at Bausman Street, said he saw a huge police presence in the area just before officers came in the store and told employees to lock it down.

Wagner said officers used the store’s parking lot as a staging area. He estimated that the thrift store remained closed for about 45 minutes.

Earlier break-ins

The most recent burglary charges filed against Skinner stem from a break-in earlier Tuesday at the Grand Mart convenience store on Pittsburgh’s Arlington Avenue.

According to a criminal complaint by city police, surveillance video shows a Chevy Blazer backing into the store repeatedly at about 4:45 a.m., shattering glass in the entrance door. Police said the footage showed the face of the suspect, later identified as Skinner, as he filled a trash can with many cartons of cigarettes and fled in the vehicle.

The cigarettes were valued at $10,000 to $12,000, police said.

Investigators determined the Blazer’s license plate was stolen from a Mazda vehicle.

Skinner was driving the Blazer during the Tuesday afternoon flight from police and was wearing a T-shirt and jeans shown in the video of the burglary, according to the complaint.

Skinner also was charged in a July 14 burglary of the thrift store, during which Pittsburgh police said he broke through a rear window, smashed open a display case and stole about $3,000 worth of jewelry.

According to the criminal complaint in that case, Skinner was listed as being homeless.

Scirotto said Allegheny County Police will handle charging Skinner. He anticipates that Skinner will face counts including aggravated assault and attempted homicide.

Under Pittsburgh police policy, an officer is not to shoot at a moving vehicle “unless the occupants are using deadly physical force against the officer or another person,” including using the vehicle as a weapon “and an officer, or a third party, is faced with immediate death or seriously bodily injury and the officer has done everything reasonably necessary to avoid the use of deadly force.”

The policy notes that shooting at a moving vehicle is unlikely to stop or disable the vehicle, and that it could injure or kill innocent people inside or nearby.

The chief said that there will be an internal review of the incident, which is routine when officers fire their guns, to determine if the officers followed police bureau policies.

Scirotto said there were no indications that officers did not follow policy.