Middletown Police Issue Statement in Response to Viral Video
Local police responded after a video showing an officer pointing a gun at two black men began circulating on social media.
"There was a video previously circulating social media regarding one of our police officers removing the occupants of a vehicle at gunpoint in the Eagle Point Condominium Complex earlier this morning. We recognized that this video might be disturbing to some, so we would like to provide some details regarding the events that led to this interaction," Middletown police Lt. Jeffry Thoelen said on Facebook.
On Wednesday around 3:05 a.m., the City of Middletown Police Department responded to the area of Smith Street for a report of shots fired. Officers checked the area and found an 18-year-old Hispanic man with a gunshot wound to the arm. He was treated at the scene by officers and transported to Orange Regional Medical Center where he treated and ultimately released from the hospital, police say.
An investigation by the City of Middletown Police Department, as well as reports from several eyewitnesses, revealed that the suspects in the shooting were possibly two black men who fled the scene in a black Honda SUV with a State of Pennsylvania registration, police say.
Around 4 a.m. police found the SUV parked and occupied in the parking lot of Eagle Point Condominiums on Ruth Court. The occupants of the vehicle were ordered out at gunpoint but determined to be uninvolved in the shooting incident, police say. The officers apologized and sent them on their way.
"Please understand that this shooting was an extremely dangerous incident, which puts our residents and officers in grave danger. The officers drew their firearms in anticipation of the vehicle occupants possibly being armed, and removed the subjects from the vehicle until such time that it was determined that they were not involved. It is very unfortunate that we did not have the correct vehicle or occupants, but our officers were acting in good faith, in an effort to make our community safer by apprehending dangerous perpetrators," Thoelen said on Facebook.