Tyler Austin Weaber-Haag of Palmyra waived his right to a preliminary hearing this week, moving the case one step closer to trial.
Weaber-Haag, 23, is currently in Lebanon County Prison while awaiting more than 20 charges, ranging from aggravated assault to reckless driving. He faces first-degree felony charges include aggravated assault, attempted burglary, and burglary.
Weaber-Haag’s bail was set February 8 at $1,000,000. He is currently represented by Attorney Robert Scot Feeman of Feeman Law Offices in Lebanon.
No additional court appearances are scheduled at this time as the case awaits filing of information.
According to the state, in a preliminary hearing the Commonwealth must show enough evidence that a crime has been committed and that the defendant is most likely the one who committed the crime. The legal resource Nolo offers some reasons why one might waive a preliminary hearing, such as minimizing further evidence or charges that might arise during the proceedings.
According to the criminal complaint, the incident began at 3pm on February 7 when Pennsylvania State Police at Jonestown received a report of an attempted child luring. Weaber-Haag allegedly approached a child getting off a bus and initiated a seemingly bizarre conversation about cell phones before attempting to get into the child’s house. He was stopped by the mother, who proceeded to make the initial call to police.
Weaber-Haag then walked towards Jonestown Elementary, where a second call to police was made around 3:18pm. He followed a parent through the front door and entered the office, where the secretary asked who he was picking up and he said “I’m here for myself.”
After being told to leave, Weaber-Haag ran through the school, being chased by the secretary. He told the employee, “You don’t want to do this,” before a parent became involved. The man repeated himself before exposing his waistband and exiting the school.
A crossing guard and a passerby pointed the way to the trooper, who then found the suspect, initiating a half mile foot pursuit through Jonestown Park. During the chase, the man ignored requests to stop and pointed a weapon towards the trooper while yelling at him. The man reached the Jonestown Borough maintenance building where the man stole a small red dump truck which he used to drive over a Jonestown Borough maintenance employee while escaping, identified as Craig Carl in the complaint.
The apprehension of Weaber-Haag involved at least four different troopers. According to the complaint:
Tpr. Andrew HUBIAK activated his emergency lights and sirens and attempted to conduct a traffic stop. The suspect ignored Tpr. HUBIAK and continued to travel at a high rate of speed heading south on S. Lancaster Street. He then turned left onto Moore Road and headed east toward Quarry Road. The suspect then turned left onto Quarry Road and headed north toward Swatara Road. He continued north on Swatara Road and turned left onto Dead End Road. Tpr. Michael KAMINSKAS had been monitoring radio traffic and deployed stop sticks on Dead End Road just south of the intersection with Greble Road. The suspect struck the stop sticks and continued driving turning left onto Greble Road heading west toward Jonestown Borough. Tpr. HUBIAK continued to pursue the suspect and attempted to perform a Pursuit Intervention Technique (PIT). Tpr. HUBIAK made contact with the suspect vehicle and crashed into a sign on Greble Road disabling his vehicle. A short time later, multiple units were behind the suspect vehicle and continued the pursuit. Tpr. Eric DREISBACH then performed a PIT causing the suspect vehicle to crash into Tpr. Dayton DELL’s marked unit which had been approaching from the west. The suspect vehicle became disabled and the suspect exited the vehicle. Multiple troopers attempted to take the suspect into custody as he resisted and would not obey orders to put his hands behind his back. The suspect attempted to kick, strike and spit on multiple troopers. After several minutes of resisting he was eventually taken into custody and transported to PSP Jonestown.
A passerby later approached Pennsylvania State Police with a silver .38 caliber H&R arms revolver that matched the description of the firearm Weaber-Haag had allegedly pointed at police.
According the complaint, Weaber-Haag had a suspended driver’s license and did not have a permit to carry a concealed firearm.
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