PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A state trooper shot and killed a man whose vehicle struck two troopers as law enforcement tried to get control of an illegal early morning street racing gathering on a Philadelphia interstate, state police said Sunday.
State police say troopers were called to I-95 in the Penn’s Landing area shortly before 3:30 a.m. Sunday where “numerous vehicles and pedestrians” were illegally blocking the highway.
Police said they tried to contact one vehicle and its operator, but the vehicle failed to yield and two troopers were struck. Police said a trooper shot the driver, 18-year-old Anthony Allegrini Junior of Glen Mills, who was pronounced dead at the scene by fire department medics. The troopers sustained what were called minor injuries.
“The vehicles were reported to be racing, doing ‘burnouts’ and ‘drifting,’” with many people outside their vehicles watching, police said. Troopers had been called to help local police at several similar incidents earlier in the evening, and before state police arrived at the I-95 scene there had been a report of shots fired, police said.
The southbound lanes of the interstate were closed to traffic early Sunday as police investigated but reopened later in the morning. State police and the Philadelphia district attorney’s office are investigating.
The president of FOP Lodge #5, John McNesby, told reporters that illegal street racing occurred in Mayfair and Bustleton on Saturday night as well as on I-95, calling it “another weekend of Philadelphia and state police officers putting themselves in danger to curb this criminal behavior.” McNesby said in one incident an officer had a brick thrown through her windshield, which left her shaken but not seriously injured.
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