Police: Suspect in Centre County car robberies in custody after crash, pursuit
A York County man was jailed after police accused him Tuesday of two carjackings that ended in a multiple-vehicle crash and a police chase.
Kaison Mitchell, 23, “flagged down” a driver about 5 p.m. Tuesday along the 500 block of Vairo Boulevard and told the driver he did not know where he was, Patton and Ferguson Township police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed Tuesday.
The driver drove away as Mitchell was pulling on a door handle and “pounding” on a window, police wrote.
About five minutes later, Mitchell stopped a second driver along Vairo Boulevard. He reached inside a window, opened a door, removed a woman’s seat belt and pulled her out of the vehicle, police wrote.
He crashed that Chrysler minivan into two other vehicles at the intersection of North Atherton Street and Vairo Boulevard, then fled, police wrote. Nobody was injured in the crashes, Patton Township police Sgt. MJ Shupenko said.
Officers were diverted from the crash to the Uni-Mart at 315 W. Aaron Drive, where a man said Mitchell struck him in the face, grabbed him by his shirt, pulled him out of his Honda Civic and drove away, police wrote.
State police at Rockview attempted to stop Mitchell in Pleasant Gap, but he is accused of leading officers on a more than 100 mph chase. Several motorists had to “take evasive actions” to avoid a head-on crash, police wrote.
Mitchell evaded state police officers, but was found along state Route 322 by State College police. Borough police officers deployed spike strips and arrested him near the Oak Hall exit.
Mitchell is also accused of kicking a state police officer in the left leg after he was placed in a borough police car, state police at Rockview wrote.
A defense lawyer for Mitchell was not listed on a court document.
Mitchell was charged with two felony counts of robbery of a motor vehicle, one felony count each of attempted robbery of a motor vehicle, aggravated assault and fleeing an officer, one misdemeanor count each of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person and six summary traffic violations.
He was arraigned Tuesday by District Judge Allen Sinclair, who set bail at $100,000. Mitchell did not post bail and is detained at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 22.
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 11:42 PM.