Pa. state police arrest man involved in Wednesday shooting that wounded a trooper (2024)

Pennsylvania State Police arrested a man with ties to York and Lancaster counties Wednesday after they say he fired a pistol seven times from inside a Lancaster storage unit where he was holed up, wounding a state trooper.

Police charged Alfredo Maldonado-Gonzalez, 41, with the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer after a member of the state police Special Emergency Response Team was hit by a bullet in his upper right bicep while serving a search warrant at a set of storage units at 629 E. Fulton St.

Investigators had connected Maldonado-Gonzalez — whose home addresses are listed in the 500 block of East Maple Street, Dallastown, and the 700 block of North Queen Street, Lancaster — with a series of robberies around Lancaster County.

Their investigation took them to three locked storage units, Nos. 10, 11 and 12, Wednesday morning. Police say a team of nine SERT officers announced their arrival at the units with sirens and a continuous public address system message saying they were executing a search warrant and would be entering the units.

As officers were using tools to access the units, gunshots rang out and a member of the team, Cpl. John J. Pokorny, said he was struck by a bullet, according to a police affidavit. SERT team members began treating him at the scene, and he was taken to Lancaster General Hospital for further care for a non-life-threatening injury.

Cpl. Pokorny, an 11-year veteran state trooper, is the son of the late state police Cpl. Joseph R. Pokorny, who was shot to death with his own service weapon on Dec. 12, 2005, during a traffic stop.

SERT team members said they did not fire their weapons during the incident Wednesday.

When officers gained access to the storage units, they found Maldonado-Gonzalez in the back corner of Unit 11 near a futon, where they also found seven spent 9 mm casings, according to the criminal complaint.

In Unit 10, which was not separated from Unit 11 by a wall, police said they found a Walther 9 mm handgun that matches one of five firearms stolen during a robbery in East Hempfield Township.

On Tuesday, police formally charged Maldonado-Gonzalez in connection with two other robberies: one July 6 at a mobile home park in the 100 block of Madge Drive in East Hempfield, just west of BJ’s Wholesale Club; and one June 23 at a house in the 100 block of Heisey Avenue in Rheems, West Donegal Township.

Maldonado-Gonzalez faces a long list of charges in connection with those crimes, including robbery, burglary and aggravated assault. After the shooting Wednesday, police also charged him with assault of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, receiving stolen property and related offenses. He is in Lancaster County Prison without bail.

Police also said they interviewed Maldonado-Gonzalez’s girlfriend Wednesday, and she said he was FaceTiming with her as police were attempting to access the storage units.

From the scene

After the shooting, neighbors in the area saw police investigating near the storage units, which neighbor the Horse Inn and Book Resort on the same block; they focused their search around a parked gray sedan.

Robert Hawkins, a 25-year resident of the 500 block of Fulton Street, said he was shocked to hear of the incident.

“Nothing ever happens around here,” he said.

Robert Hubert, 54, who has lived in the area for most of his life, also said the neighborhood is usually quiet.

Hubert said he returned from working third shift around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and saw lots of police lights and the SERT armored vehicle roll in. He also saw police arrest a woman walking nearby after the initial chaos.

Hubert, who lives across the street from the storage buildings, said a man had been living out of one of the storage spaces for a few months before the shooting, though he did not know much about him.

A neighbor who declined to be identified said she heard a loud whining noise as if a lock was being cut before gunshots rang out. She described the man who was living in the storage space as short and “kind of chubby.” She did not know him personally but had interacted with him a few times.