(File Photo of a Police Siren Light)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Cranberry Township, PA) A New Brighton man is now facing attempted homicide charges after he fired a gun at a gas station in Beaver County yesterday. He was last seen after escaping police in Cranberry Township.
Jalen Isaiah Sims, 33, of New Brighton, is facing two felony counts each of attempted homicide and aggravated assault, two felony firearms charges, a felony count of theft, two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and one misdemeanor count each of tampering with evidence and terroristic threats filed yesterday by New Brighton police.
According to an affidavit, police were dispatched at 8:26 p.m. to the Speedway on Fifth Street for a report of gunshots fired and spoke with a couple who reported a man carrying a handgun approached them on foot while they were in their vehicle at a gas pump and fired a shot that hit, but didn’t enter, the vehicle.
The couple confirmed that the man got into a vehicle and fled after firing the shot.
Using footage from business security cameras, police noted that they identified Sims in the front seat passenger in a tan Volkswagen. The affidavit states that footage shows Sims exiting the car and pacing in front of the store before retrieving a book bag from the back seat and removing a black firearm with an extended magazine from the bag, while police say that Sims then looked around and saw the couple’s SUV enter the parking lot, before approaching the SUV, raising the gun and firing it, striking the vehicle just above the windshield.
Sims eventually got back into the front passenger seat of the Volkswagen, which escaped south on Fifth Avenue.
Cranberry Township police saw the Volkswagen at 9 p.m. and reported that the driver was in custody, but the passenger fled.
Police learned areound the same time that New Sewickley Township police had been dispatched to Rochester Road in Rochester for a report that two men had thrown a backpack over a hillside and left. Police responded there and found a backpack that contained a Glock handgun with an extended magazine.
The affidavit further states that a doorbell camera recorded Sims exiting the Volkswagen’s passenger door carrying a book bag, walking to the edge of a parking lot and throwing the bag into the woods. Police noted that the driver also was seen in the footage, police said.
A driver that Sims forced to drive for him told police that Sims asked him to drive Sims around and said he would buy him gasoline. They stopped at the Speedway for gas before the shooting took place. Sims got back into the Volkswagen and told the driver to drive after the shooting, but the driver refused. The affidavit confirmed that Sims then pointed the gun at the driver and told him drive or he would shoot him.
The driver also told police he pulled into a church parking lot after the Volkswagen ran out of gas. The driver stated that he called 911 after Sims started walking away, but Sims returned and punched him in the face. Sims then ran when police arrived.
Sims was still at large as of the most recent information released by police at 5:30 p.m. yesterday.
