Police investigation leads to chase in Farrell

Staff report

FARRELL, PA.

Police are investigating an attempted armed robbery and a successful one within a half-hour of each other at two convenience stores.

The police investigation also sparked a low-speed chase that resulted in a crash and a 13-year-old being charged, Southwest Mercer County Regional Police reported.

Police said a man with a shotgun tried to hold up the clerk at McQuaids on New Castle Road in Farrell at 2:15 a.m. Saturday.

The clerk refused to open the cash register and the man ran from the store.

Two men with a shotgun entered the Circle K on Main Street in West Middlesex at 2:46 a.m., this time getting away with cash and cigarettes.

Police tried to pull over a car that matched the description of the one the robbers were driving, but that car would not stop, a report says.

Police followed the car on a low-speed chase for nearly three miles from Spangler Road in Shenango Township to the 700 block of Indiana Avenue in Farrell.

During the chase, police tried to stop the car on Longview Road when it hit the rear of a police cruiser. When it got to Indiana Avenue, the driver tried to speed away from police and hit a utility pole, shearing it in half.

The 13-year-old who was driving was charged with theft of a motor vehicle, receiving stolen property, assault on a law-enforcement officer with a vehicle, recklessly endangering another person, fleeing and eluding and driving without a license.

Police Chief Riley Smoot said the juveniles in the car were not involved in the robbery, but tried to run from police because the driver didn’t have a license.