State Police have charged a McKeesport man with several drug and chase-related crimes after he lead police on a chase through portions of Indiana County.
This started with an attempted traffic stop on Route 119 near Catalpa Street in Burrell Township as troopers were conducting radar traffic duty. That was when a vehicle was tracked going 80 in a 55 mile an hour zone. The suspect initially pulled over when troopers started the traffic stop but before the trooper could approach the driver, later identified as 20-year-old Edgard Fumbula of McKeesport, the car accelerated and fled north on 119. A pursuit was initiated and the chase went onto Luciousboro Road, and Fumbula nearly hit another vehicle as they went into the westbound lane. Fumbula was able to lose the police after turning onto Evergreen Road and going into the Waste Management Evergreen Landfill area. The car was found on a nearby gas well road, but it was unoccupied and the engine was running.
State Police would call in the aviation unit and the Homer City K-9 Department were also called in to assist with the search, and a resident notified authorities of a man, covered in mud and wearing a white tee-shirt and black pants, who was given a ride to the Blairsville Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart employees helped police trace the man through the store, and found he purchased another shirt in the store which he wore over his muddy white one. He was then found in the parking lot and placed under arrest.
Police say that Fumbula had 51 stamp bags of suspected heroin and a small amount of marijuana on his person. State Police have charged Fumbula with felony possession with intent to deliver, misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance and of marijuana, and fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, and several summary traffic charges. He was arraigned in front of District Judge Christopher Welch and is now in county jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.
