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Two people were killed, including a Pennsylvania State Police trooper and a suspect from an earlier shooting, during a gun battle in Walker Township, Juniata County shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
A second trooper was also shot in the earlier, but related incident in Mifflintown. He was being treated for his injuries at an area hospital; no information was immediately available on the extent of his injuries or his condition.
Police said the incidents began after a trooper “encountered an armed subject in the area of the Troop G, Lewistown Station” at some point on Saturday morning.
At about 12:45 p.m., the person believed to have been involved in the first incident “engaged troopers in Mifflintown Borough,” apparently shooting at an occupied state police cruiser in the 400 block of Washington Avenue in Mifflintown, striking a trooper inside.
It was not immediately clear if the trooper was driving through the area at the time, or making a traffic stop with the shooter.
That trooper was seriously injured and transported to a local hospital.
MIfflintown Hose Company Fire Chief Jeremy Henry described that area as a mostly residential block in the the borough’s town center. Washington Avenue is also state route 35.
After an intense search, the shooter was located in the area of Swamp Road and Baumgardner Drive in Walker Township, Juniata County shortly before 3:00 p.m. Troopers exchanged gunfire with him. In this exchange, the shooter and a trooper were both shot and killed.
James Letner, a Port Royal resident, had just finished playing tennis with friends at a nearby public court in Mifflintown when the first shooting occurred.
“I heard two shots fired, and then a car accident,” Letner said.
Rushing over to the scene, he said he saw a state police cruiser crashed into a telephone pole. Bystanders had already pulled the trooper, who was apparently shot while driving, out of the car and were trying to give him first aid.
That trooper appeared to have been hit twice, Letner said bystanders told him. Real-time emergency dispatches said the trooper was struck in the shoulder.
That first shooting triggered an intense search for the shooter, who was believed to be in a silver truck, throughout the Juniata County area.
“They were searching every nook and cranny for this guy,” Letner said.
The man was located shortly before 3 p.m. in Walker Township, where the deadly firefight took place.
The public is asked to avoid the area, as the scene remains active. There is no threat to the public and the incident in contained.
The names of the male subject and the involved troopers will be released at a later time.
Gov. Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania State Police Colonel Christopher Paris are at the hospital where the wounded trooper was taken.
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