Coatesville Will Again Try To Hire Maj. John Laufer As Police Chief
By David Madden
COATESVILLE, Pa. (CBS) -- The City of Coatesville is about to get its third police chief in the last six months. Maybe.
Julius Canale resigned last July. At the time, the town council wanted to hire Pennsylvania State Police major John Laufer, but couldn't muster the votes. They opted in late fall for former Philadelphia deputy police commissioner Stephen Johnson, who later stepped down for health reasons.
Which has now brought them back to Laufer.
"Mr. Laufer should have gotten the position in the first place, and we wouldn't have had to have gone through all this," says Coatesville councilman Jarrell Brazzle.
Brazzle won't predict how this coming Monday's scheduled vote among the seven-member Council will go.
Laufer became a police officer after tackling a woman who shot her way through the Springfield Mall in 1985, killing three people. That woman, Sylvia Seegrist, is now serving three life terms in prison.
