Pennsylvania State Trooper Shots Man Stealing his Police Car

Three men suspected in a computer heist early this morning at Monroe Elementary School are now in state police custody.

The last of the suspects, Anthony Wilson, no age given, turned himself in to state police at Carlisle earlier this afternoon, state Trooper Jackie Capriotti says.

The other suspects, Juan Carlos Samayoa, 25, and Troy Wenger Jr., 24, were taken into custody earlier today.

All three face charges that include burglary, and fleeing and eluding police, Capriotti says.

She says they are expected to be arraigned later today.

Suspect hospitalized

Samayoa is listed in stable condition at Hershey Medical Center after he was shot by a state trooper while allegedly trying to steal a state police cruiser off Forge Road in South Middleton Township.

A Pennsylvania State Police car is unloaded at the Carlisle barracks in South Middleton Township Thursday. Police say the window was shot out when a school break-in suspect tried to use it as a getaway vehicle after being cornered off Forge Road. The suspect is in stable condition at Hershey Medical Center. (Jason Minick/The Sentinel)

Wenger was apprehended later in the midst of the investigation, Capriotti says.

The three men are alleged to have broken into Monroe Elementary School and taken computer equipment with them. An alarm was activated at 2:54 a.m., Capriotti says.

She says police arrived just as the suspects were leaving the school in a car with its headlights off. Police followed the vehicle west on Route 174 to Boiling Springs and then north onto Forge Road. The vehicle stopped after turning onto what turned out to be a long driveway at J.H. Brandt and Associates Roofing Co., 657 Forge Road.

Capriotti says the troopers saw that the men, who fled on foot, were wearing ski masks.

Samayoa then approached the state police cruiser and attempted to drive away, Capriotti says.

She says authorities believe just one of two troopers on the scene fired on Samayoa, who was struck in the arm and the chest.

Capriotti says she does not know the make and model of the vehicle that was involved in the pursuit, but a gray Chevrolet Cavalier with computer equipment bearing Cumberland Valley School District markings was observed in the Carlisle barracks’ impound lot, WHTM-TV reported.

A blue Ford Tempo is also involved in the investigation, Capriotti says.Police are still in the process of obtaining search warrants for the vehicles, Capriotti says.

The theft may be linked to a string of recent school computer thefts in Cumberland, Franklin and Huntingdon counties. "The equipment in the back of the suspects' vehicle would seem consistent with computer equipment," Capriotti said, adding she could not speculate if today's incident is related.

Neighbor surprised

Cumberland Valley School District officials got word of the break-in about 6 a.m., said Robert Crobak, director of elementary education. Some doors at the school were "jimmied," Crobak said.

Marie Zeigler, who lives across Route 174 from the school, said this morning she left for work at 5:30 a.m. and didn't see any police vehicles there then. "I didn't hear anything at all" during the night or early morning, she added.

Zeigler said the school had been broken into periodically in the past but she was surprised someone broke in after the alarm system was put in.

Monroe Elementary students were told not to come to school today, Principal Darrin Feerar said.

Early this morning Crobak and another employee were standing in the school driveway checking vehicles that turned onto the property. Two state police cars were parked outside as police investigated inside the school.

"We need to give them time to look through different classrooms and hallways to see if they needed anything," he said.

Crobak said some parents arrived this morning to drop their children off for before-school child care because they hadn't heard the news. Officials told them to take the children elsewhere.

A few teachers who lived far away also came this morning but weren't allowed to immediately enter the building, he said. The teachers came to school this afternoon "so they can look through their classrooms and make sure there aren't any items missing," he said.

Classes will be held Friday unless officials announce otherwise.

Crobak apologized for the inconvenience. "I know this is hard on parents," he said.

Next door, Monroe Township employees checked their building early this morning to make sure no one was inside.

South Middleton abuzz

In South Middleton, Forge Road was shut down this morning, and police were checking every vehicle traveling on York Road near Mayapple golf course.

In the parking lot of the roofing business, which is next to Otterbein United Methodist Church, a police car was isolated by police tape while troopers and more police vehicles sat outside the taped-off area.

Across the street, construction workers started their day on new houses in a development as though nothing were out of the ordinary, and students waited for the school bus.

South Middleton School District Superintendent Patricia Sanker said this morning all three schools at the Boiling Springs campus -- the high school, Yellow Breeches Middle School and Iron Forge Educational Center -- would be "locked down" until police gave officials an all-clear notice.

All outside doors were locked until students reported to school, and then students were let in and the doors were locked again.

Rice Elementary School near Mt. Holly Springs was not affected.

Sanker got a call from a district employee after 6 a.m. that Forge Road was closed from Mayapple to Lindsay Road, and told the district transportation director to take buses as close as possible to the affected area. But most school buses use Forge Road.

State police assured Sanker she didn't have to close the schools, she said.

Students who came in late weren't marked tardy.

Residents speculate

Boiling Springs residents were buzzing over whether the shooting incident was linked to the three-county string of computer thefts.

Several men gathered in front of the Getty Food Mart speculated that the suspects were "making their rounds." Some also had heard rumors that a suspect's vehicle was found in the post office parking lot.

Doug Beattie, acting postmaster in Boiling Springs, said the lot was blocked off before 6 a.m by police. When Beattie got to the post office shortly after 7 a.m., he said five police cruisers surrounded a silver coupe in the parking lot and he saw officers talking to someone in the car.

By 7:45 a.m. the police and the silver car were no longer in the lot, Beattie added.

The postmaster said there is no sign of a break-in at the post office, and police told him the incident had nothing to do with his building.

He said he was shocked to hear about the shooting but added that "if these are the people who have been robbing schools of computer equipment, I hope they get caught."

Life-long resident Carl Meredith, 76, said he learned about the shooting early this morning while watching TV and immediately locked up his house.

"It's terrible," he lamented.

Police cruisers continued to drive slowly around the Forge Road area throughout the morning. The road was reopened to traffic about 11:20 a.m.

"These people need to find something to do," Meredith said of the computer thieves. "They need to find a job and make an honest living."

Reporter Joseph Cress also contributed to this report.