ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A man is facing charges after police say he was driving a stolen car and led officers on a chase in Ross Township early Friday.
According to the criminal complaint, a Pittsburgh police officer was on patrol in the area of East Ohio Street and Nash Street at 2:25 a.m. when he ran a car’s registration and found it was stolen out of Harrison Township.
The officer followed the car without activating the emergency lights or siren, according to court documents.
The car drove onto I-279 north and continued onto McKnight Road, all while the officer was calling out its location.
According to the complaint, the officer waited until two more officers arrived at the scene before trying to stop the stolen car right past the intersection of McKnight Road and Nelson Run Road.
The car pulled over once a responding patrol car’s emergency lights were activated, according to court documents. An officer gave the driver one verbal command to turn the car off, but the car fled the traffic stop at a low rate of speed on McKnight Road toward Ross Township.
The car continued down McKnight Road, obeying all traffic laws, the criminal complaint said. The car then pulled into the BP gas station at 4775 McKnight Road and stopped at a gas pump.
The responding officers, including Ross Township police, conducted a felony traffic stop on the car. The driver was hailed out first, then a passenger.
Both occupants of the vehicle were placed in handcuffs without incident.
The passenger, identified as Amy Consalvo, was carrying a bag of heroin, a crack rock a suboxone strip and a crack pipe, according to court documents. She also had a baggie of crack cocaine, two crack pipes, ten hypodemic needles, a blue arm band and multiple used stamp bags in her purse, which was still in the stolen car.
Consalvo told police she didn’t know the car or the driver, identified as David Wilson Jr. She said she was homeless and had met him 30 minutes prior near the Pressley Street High Rise because he said he would give her a ride.
According to court documents, Consalvo told Wilson about the officers behind them, to which he allegedly told her “Here, take this,” before handing her a baggie of crack cocaine.
The criminal complaint said Consalvo told police she was also a crack cocaine user and that she told Wilson to stop when the officers were behind them. She told police he was hitting his crack pipe as the officers tried to pull them over the first time.
After speaking with Consalvo, police spoke with Wilson, who told them his friend let him take her car. He said his friend wanted him to take the car to the store to get some items because she couldn’t do it with her baby.
Wilson told police he went to his aunt’s house in Manchester to get his mail after the store he went to didn’t have the items he wanted. He also said he didn’t want to stop at the original stop location because it was too dark and on a hill so he felt unsafe.
Both Wilson and Consalvo were taken to the Allegheny County Jail without incident.
Wilson is charged with receiving stolen property, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer and driving while operating privilege is suspended.
Consalvo is charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and multiple drug charges.
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