Turnpike Shooting: Retired State Trooper Allegedly Kills Two In Robbery Attempt At Pennsylvania Toll Plaza

A former Pennsylvania state trooper, Clarence Briggs, 55, allegedly shot and killed Ronald Heist, 71, and Danny Crouse, 55, while trying to rob a turnpike interchange. He was fatally shot by a state trooper as he unloaded money from the fare collection vehicle into his car.

As the Washington Post reports, Briggs, who retired from the state police in 2012, showed up wearing cargo pants and a camouflage mask around 7:00 a.m. Sunday at the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Fort Littleton interchange.

Clarence Briggs, Retired PA Trooper, Shoots Dead Danny Crouse, Ronald Heist, During Armored… https://t.co/lBwX0RlZJb pic.twitter.com/sJmm4x9nUo

— UJReview (@UJReview) March 21, 2016

He had threatened two employees in the toll booth with a handgun, ordering them into an office building. When he tried to tie them up, a struggle ensued and he fled. Outside, Briggs ran into the armored fare collection truck that had just arrived at the interchange.

He allegedly opened fire, killing Ronald Heist, the security guard for the vehicle and Daniel Crouse, the Turnpike toll collector. Heist was a retired police officer, while Crouse was a 3-month-old employee. Briggs also shot at the driver who escaped unhurt leaving the fare collection vehicle behind.

Briggs got behind the wheel and drove where he had parked his vehicle and was loading the stolen money into his car. A few minutes later, the first state trooper arrived on the scene, gunfire was exchanged and Briggs was killed.

BREAKING: retired trooper Clarence Briggs, 55, SUSPECT in robbery on Turnpike. Briggs, 2 others, dead. @abc27News pic.twitter.com/30GvrpqwQ0

— Dennis Owens (@Owens_abc27) March 20, 2016

Authorities say Briggs was a state trooper for 26 years before he was honorably discharged and was assigned to Troop T, a team saddled with patrolling the turnpike before he retired.

Turnpike Commission Chairman Sean Logan, at a press conference, said the Turnpike family was deeply saddened by the tragedy and that all resources would be expended to find out what really happened and why it happened. Logan said Fort Littleton was not a busy interexchange, and that robbery attempts were a rarity.

Capt. David L Cain, commander of Troop H, said a female toll collector who witnessed the Sunday shooting was helping investigators. “She’s a tough woman … we told her to take a day or two off but I’m sure she will be back at work soon. We have a family that is resilient and we will get through this,” Logan said.

Gov. Tom Wolf offered his condolences, saying “What happened this morning was tragic and a senseless act of violence, and the victims and their families and colleagues are in our thoughts and prayers.”

The interchange at exit 180 was shut down to traffic because of the shootings. The Fort Littleton interchange is about 20 miles east of Breezewood and 20 miles north of McConellsburg.

Many remember Ronald Heist as a dependable police officer and confidante who was always up to make people laugh. Heist’s role as a security guard came after he spent his entire career in the York City Police Department and York County Parks Department before he stepped down in 1995. York City Police Chief Wes Kahley remembered him as a good guy who retired from the force with his reputation intact.

His sister, Lila Holland, got married in Pennsylvania aged 18 and moved to California in 1956. She admitted that she had not seen much of her brother as she would have liked. But a week before her brother’s death, she talked to him on the phone, “talking happy times and just talking in general, he was a funny guy, he was always a happy guy and joked about everything,” she said from her home in Roseville, California.

Bruce Veseth, president of the Association of Retired York City Police Officers, said it was a normal thing for retired officers to get into some type of security work. “It’s just something in your blood and something that you kind of do,” he said. He went on to say he has seen Heist at the association meeting on Monday before he was killed Sunday. “It was good laughing with him again; he always was in good spirits.”

[Image via Shutterstock/Paul Dempsey]