Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele announced on November 14th that the investigation of the Oct. 24th incident in Plymouth Meeting that led to a Plymouth Township police officer discharging his firearm, has been completed and found that it was a lawful use of force.

From the announcement:

The independent investigation of the shooting was conducted by the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, as is protocol for officer-involved shootings in Montgomery County. The officer involved cooperated with the investigation. As part of the investigation, County Detectives interviewed numerous officers and witnesses; reviewed police bodycam, dashcam and bystander video; and collected extensive on-scene evidence.

The incident began when police searched for a Mercedes G-Wagon that had been involved in several incidents in Montgomery and surrounding counties, including one call to 911 where the operator of the Mercedes G63 said he wanted to blow up a police station and harm/kill police officers.

The Plymouth Township police officer discovered the vehicle in the parking lot of The Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel on Fountain Road and pulled behind it with his emergency lights activated. The announcement describes the incident as follows:

Within seconds, the Mercedes G63, operated by Dalton Janiczek, started traveling in reverse, striking the Plymouth Township police vehicle several times. The officer exited his vehicle, drew his firearm, and started yelling at the vehicle’s operator to stop the vehicle and show his hands. In response, the Mercedes accelerated directly at the police officer, clearly trying to hit him. The officer shot six times toward the front windshield of the vehicle seconds before the Mercedes accelerated and struck him, inflicting serious injuries to his leg and knocking him to the ground. The impact also knocked the officer’s firearm out of his hand, landing several feet from his reach. The Mercedes then proceeded west in the parking lot.

While the officer was attempting to apply a tourniquet to his seriously injured leg, he saw the Mercedes returning. The driver drove directly at the officer, intentionally attempting to run him over three more times as the police officer yelled for “help” and for the operator to “stop.” The Mercedes then fled the area and ultimately struck another Plymouth Township police car, injuring another police officer, before Janiczek was stopped and arrested.

“This defendant used his vehicle to attempt to kill a Plymouth Township police officer and left him very seriously injured in a hotel parking lot with numerous bystanders in the area,” said Steele. “The police officer shot at the driver of the vehicle to end the threat to his own life and to end the threat to bystanders in the area. Our investigation determined the facts of this case supported the use of deadly force by the police officer.”

Plymouth Township police officer Jake Hennessey was released from Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in University City on October 31st.

The driver of the vehicle, 21-year-old Lower Gwynedd resident Dalton Lee Janiczek, has been charged with attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, and other crimes. Janiczek was denied bail and remains in custody at Montgomery County Prison.