North Side Chase Ends With Crash Into Gas Station Under Construction
SUMMER HILL (KDKA)- A man is behind bars after a police chase on the North Side that ended with a bang.
The chase started around 1 a.m. on Wednesday along High Street on the North Side. A few minutes later, the suspect crashed a white pickup truck into the BP gas station at the corner of Evergreen Road and Ivory Avenue in the Summer Hill neighborhood.
The suspect, jumped out of the truck and tried to run away up the hillside. A K-9 unit was called to the scene to help search for the suspect. A few minutes later, the suspect was taken into custody. He was bitten in the neck by the K-9 and treated by medics at the scene.
He has been identified as 30-year-old Gerald Lee Sanders.
A woman who was in the car with the suspect was released and will not be charged.
Sanders had plenty to say as police were taking him off to jail. He asked why they were laughing when a dog was biting his neck, and he claimed he would beat them all up if they put down their badges and guns.
As he was being led away, he called to the female passenger saying, "I love you baby."
Police were worried that the truck he was driving may have struck a gas tank at the BP gas station, which was under construction. Luckily, the truck didn't cause any leaks.
"He took down one section of fence. There's really no damage on top of the tanks," Chuck Norris, of CA Norris Construction, said. "He was actually right on top of one of the tanks. Yesterday, we had pulled all the concrete off, so that all the fill ports were still exposed above ground."
Norris said they just started work at the gas station this week, preparing to put in a diesel pump. He said timing was on everyone's side.
"Well if it would have been tomorrow, there possibly would have been a 10-foot hole that he would have drove into and on Friday, it would have been even deeper," Norris said.
While the ports were exposed, the gas had just been drained the day before.
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