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WATSONTOWN -- A state trooper assigned to the Milton barracks and a gunman were both injured in an "exchange of gunfire" near an apartment complex on Eight Street Drive on Wednesday morning, according to state police. While the trooper, who has not been identified, suffered a "non-life threatening wound to the leg," the suspect, identified as Hunter Shaheen, 19, a resident of Watsontown Borough, was hospitalized in stable condition with serious injuries, police said.
Police confirmed Wednesday night that the trooper was treated at an area hospital and has since been released.
Investigators said it all began when borough police were dispatched to a home in the 100 block of East Fourth Street to investigate a "report of an open 911 line and that there appeared to be some type of disturbance," according to a press release from Watsontown police. An open line is when someone has called 911, but no one is saying anything.
At the house, officers spoke with two females, one who claimed she was assaulted by a male teenager who also allegedly "threatened the other female while brandishing what was believed to be a firearm," police said. That teen, who left the home before officers arrived, was later positively identified as Shaheen, police said.
Borough police and state troopers "canvassed" the neighborhood, looking for Shaheen. A little after 8 a.m., police were notified that "a man matching the suspect's clothing description was walking eastbound on Eighth Street Drive, near Vincent Avenue in Delaware Township. Officers then saw the suspect fleeing south into a field. There was then an exchange of gunfire between police and the suspect," Watsontown police said. It happened in the 600 block of Eighth Street Drive, police said.
John Gummo told WNEP-TV News he heard gunshots and a lot of yelling outside his home. "There was rapid fire. I was very concerned when I heard it," he told the television station. When he went to a window and looked outside his home, he saw "a man down in the field," referring to Shaheen, and then "a state trooper coming up through (the field). He had been shot," he told WNEP.
While Shaheen is recovering in a hospital, troopers wasted no time in filing felony assault-related charges against him at a district judge's office.
"The investigation is ongoing, and more information will be released when it becomes available," state police said in a prepared statement.