A Man Who Was Fleeing Police Died After They Accidentally Ran Over Him With A Bulldozer

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Buzzfeed News


Authorities were driving through thick brush looking for the man when they found his body behind the bulldozer on state game lands in Pennsylvania.

Posted on July 14, 2018, at 8:28 p.m.
Stephanie K. Baer
BuzzFeed News Reporter

A man who was fleeing police in Pennsylvania was accidentally run over with a bulldozer while authorities were responding to a report of a suspicious car on state and where 10 marijuana plants were later found, Pennsylvania State Police said.

Gregory Longenecker, 51, of Reading, was found dead under the rear of the bulldozer that a state trooper and a Pennsylvania Game Commission employee were using to search for him in "thick underbrush" Monday morning, according to a police statement.

At around 10 a.m., the game commission employee was operating the bulldozer on state game lands in Penn Township when he noticed a car parked in a field, the statement said. Local police arrived at the scene and shortly after two men "came out of very thick underbrush" and fled on foot.

One of the men was taken into custody by police in Bernville, while the other, later identified as Longenecker, eluded capture, state police said.

Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/skbaer/pennsylvania-police-run-over-suspect-bulldozer?utm_term=.rhWlM1LYo#.rfqDnaKlO

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Earlier article:

Marijuana group blasts Pennsylvania police for man's death by bulldozer
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Thursday, July 12, 2018 05:38PM

BERNVILLE, Pa. -- State police went grossly overboard in their pursuit of a marijuana suspect whose body was found under a bulldozer that authorities used to search for him in thick brush, a pot advocacy group said Thursday.

Officials with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws blasted state police for calling in a helicopter and commandeering a Pennsylvania Game Commission bulldozer as they tracked Gregory Longenecker, 51, who'd fled law enforcement on state game lands about 10 miles from his hometown of Reading.

Police said they found 10 marijuana plants at the scene.

"We simply cannot understand how a man is dead over an investigation involving 10 cannabis plants," said Patrick Nightingale, executive director of NORML's Pittsburgh chapter and a former Allegheny County prosecutor. "The whole investigation was ridiculous. I've seen law enforcement take down major heroin traffickers that haven't engaged in this level of aggression."

More:
http://6abc.com/marijuana-group-blasts-pa-police-for-mans-death-by-bulldozer/3754106/

[dhol82]

1. No words.

[Grassy Knoll]

2. Holy Crap...

[JI7]

3. they used the bulldozer to search for him ?

[scarletwoman]

4. Reefer madness - on the part of the cops. nt

[arithia]

5. ........... wtf, pa???

I sincerely hope charges are brought up over excessive use of force. I sincerely doubt they will be, because Pennsyltucky.

[Sneederbunk]

6. Didn't say if it had lights and siren.

[Turbineguy]

7. Obviously

they had no atomic weapons.

Even Kim Jong Un doesn't do that.

[gyroscope]

8. Absurd overkill.

I dont think it was an accident.

the likelihood of killing someone with such a machine is very high, and they know it. it was deliberate.

[NickB79]

9. A bulldozer's top speed is 6 mph.

Deliberately murdering someone with such a slow, loud machine would be quite the feat.

[greyl]

10. Stop. First, do you know the make and model?

Second, there are many bulldozers that exceed 20 MPH.
Third, this is reckless endangerment at least.

http://lawbrain.com/wiki/Reckless_Endangerment

[greyl]

13. No, make and model of bulldozer in question, please. nt

[NickB79]

15. What model does 20 mph?

He'll, show me one that does even 10mph.

PS: I've driven dozers before. I'll wait.

[Kaleva]

27. Obviously that spped is during optimum conditions.

Like traveling over flat ground and not bulldozing and the tracks are not steel.

"Deere wanted to deliver a real leap in productivity, though, and that resulted in an unprecedented combination of weight and horsepower in the rubber-tracked tractor.
“Customers said, ‘We’re limited with steel-track machines, because of speed,’” Bayless says. “Top speed of a steel-tracked machine is 6, maybe 7, miles per hour. Top speed on this machine [the 764HSD] is 16.”

And that speed is not reserved for transport. The machine is intended to fine grade efficiently with its 11-foot blade (same part number as that on the 115-horsepower 700J dozer) at more than double the speed of conventional steel-track dozers."

https://www.constructionequipment.com/crawler-dozers/deere-764-high-speed-dozer-delivers

[gyroscope]

11. 6mph is not slow in a wooded area.

a person cannot run as fast through a wooded or brushy area as they can on the pavement.
a bulldozer certainly has the advantage in such an environment.

as mentioned the top speed of a bulldozer can be a lot greater than 6mph depending on the model.

[Midnight Writer]

14. Right, the dead guy is obviously at fault for being run over.

[NickB79]

16. Both the cops and the guy killed were at fault

He ran and hid.

The cops used the dozer as a vantage point since they were up off the ground in it (or were just too lazy to walk the brush).

The guy kept hiding as the dozer got closer instead of coming out of hiding.

The cops ran him over because he was really good at hiding.

Everyone fucked up royally.

[joshcryer]

17. Add the fact that it was just 10 pot plants...

...and I think we can give the cops a bit more blame on this one.

[Kaleva]

18. Why run for just 10 pot plants?

Just surrender peacefully and do your community service and probation.

The guy is a Darwin Award winner.

[NickB79]

23. I think the war on pot is complete shit

And cases like this show why we need to change the laws so people aren't so scared of prison that they'll die hiding because of 10 pot plants

[Corgigal]

19. Wow, so the guy ran and hid.

If you got one, you got two...or more. That's how law enforcement worked back in our day. Late 80s / early 90s. You could have called out the k9. The evidence of the ten pot plants isn't going to be a giant bust which will make your career.

I would want the jackets from their agencies pulled. Internal affairs needs to know what they have working for them. They don't need to be law enforcement anymore. The search was reckless, and for one person deadly.

I would also like to know the screening process of this agency.

[NickB79]

21. Agreed.

Don't think I don't want the cops held accountable. My only beef in this thread was the comment that they deliberately ran down and murdered a man with a bulldozer, which is virtually impossible.

That doesn't mean they weren't reckless in their actions and can't be punished.

Also, fuck the war on weed that made this man scared enough that he ran over a handful of plants.

[atreides1]

20. Okay

1. The cops had his friend in custody, who was released on $25,000 bond
2. The cops had the vehicle
3. The man was 51 and likely from the local area, which means the cops could have caught him eventually!

Did you take into consideration that if the brush was as thick as is being reported the man could have gotten stuck and was yelling for help...but wasn't heard over the engine of the bulldozer?


Also, the cops lied, not once but twice about the cause of death! When the authorities lie, it usually means that someone didn't follow procedure!

https://www.alternet.org/drugs/bulldozed-death-growing-ten-10-marijuana-cannabis-plants

First, Trooper Boehm denied that Longenecker died as a result of a police pursuit. "They were just trying to locate this guy with use of a helicopter," he explained.

Then he suggested that Longenecker may have died of natural causes. "The reason it’s unclear if Longenecker was struck and killed by the bulldozer is that Longenecker, because of his age, could have had a heart attack while fleeing through the dense thicket," Boehm said.

But that attempted diversion was foiled on Tuesday when the preliminary autopsy report came out. That report found that Longenecker died of traumatic injuries after being run over by the bulldozer. A final ruling on the cause of death awaits toxicology tests, but it is clear that he died after being run over by the bulldozer.

[NickB79]

22. That is indeed possible (stuck in the brush)

But it also helps refute the earlier poster's assertion that the police deliberately ran down and murdered the man, if he was so well-hidden in such thick brush as to be unseeable to them.

I'm not arguing that the cops weren't reckless; I'm arguing there's little evidence they intentionally murdered him.

If you took the cops to trial on murder charges, they'll walk. If you hit them with unintentional manslaughter, there's a chance for a conviction.

[joshcryer]

24. Yikes, they actually tried to argue he died of natural causes?

What a bunch of pieces of shit. It would've been completely obvious if he died from the dozer...

My guess they were hoping they rolled over a dead guy and so were trying to push that narrative.

[FUGAMC]

25. They said is was possible

And it certainly was possible that he died of a coronary while evading capture. The coroner later discounted the possibility after presumably conducting a post-mortem exam.

It was an unfortunate incident, but the perp should not have attempted to evade arrest, and when one tries to evade a lawful arrest, bad things can happen during the course of pursuits.

[shanny]

26. What kind of f@ckhead pursues a fugitive with a bulldozer?

This is like something out of a stupid movie.