A tense police standoff in Upper Saucon Township that lasted hours and followed a police shooting and manhunt that involved dozens of law enforcement personnel is reportedly over.
A police standoff in Upper Saucon Township that lasted hours and reportedly ended with a murder-suicide drew media from around the region to the area of Limeport Pike Saturday.
The Upper Saucon Township Police Department posted on their Facebook page shortly before 9:45 p.m. that “the incident has concluded and everyone is safe.”
“More information will come out at a later time,” police said.
NBC10 Philadelphia employee Jim Friedman, citing scanner reports, publicly posted on Facebook that the two suspects in the police shooting–who had reportedly earlier barricaded themselves in a home–were found dead in an attic after flash bangs were heard and shots were fired into a home on Lanark Road.
The TV news station will reportedly have a full report at 11 p.m.
As of 10 p.m., Lehigh District Attorney Jim Martin and Upper Saucon Township Police Chief Robert Coyle were conducting a news conference in which Martin said that the situation “ended with an apparent murder-suicide,” with one suspect apparently shooting the other.
Martin said the suspects were “not from (Upper Saucon) Township,” but didn’t say where they were from.
The unnamed suspects were stopped because of active warrants related to parole violations, he stated.
No police were injured as a result of the day’s events, he added.
Channel 69 News reported Saturday night that when an officer from the township attempted to pull the two suspects over, shots were fired by a man with a handgun and the police pursuit was terminated.
Citing scanner reports, WFMZ reported that the officer then said a man and woman had left the vehicle–which has been described in various media reports as a black Kia–and were fleeing through a cornfield.
The Morning Call reported Saturday afternoon that the couple entered at least one occupied home, where they confronted a male resident with a gun and demanded his car keys.
The man was able to talk his way out of giving them the keys and they left without harming him, the newspaper reported.
More information about the incident that forced hundreds of people in the Center Valley and Coopersburg areas to shelter in place is expected to be released later.