Police: Chase spanning New Kensington, Plum and Penn Hills ends in crash, arrest
State narcotics agents are leading an investigation into a man who authorities say led them on a chase Wednesday through New Kensington, Plum and Penn Hills before hitting another vehicle head-on and being caught with nearly $7,000 in cocaine.
Matthew Avans McCloud, 34, of New Kensington faces a litany of charges, including felony counts of manufacture, delivery or possession of illicit drugs and fleeing an officer. He also faces misdemeanor counts of possession, escape, tampering with evidence and causing a crash involving property damage.
New Kensington police Chief Bob Deringer said the state Attorney General’s Office is handling the case. An AG’s representative did not immediately return a request for comment.
Police were on a drug suppression detail alongside agents with the AG’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and the Westmoreland County Drug Task Force when they spotted a vehicle they knew was likely to be driven by McCloud, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.
McCloud appeared to be avoiding police, so they followed him into the parking lot of the CVS pharmacy near Freeport Street, where they made a traffic stop, according to the complaint. McCloud then backed up and took Logans Ferry Road toward Plum at speeds far in excess of the posted limits, according to the complaint.
Police said agents and officers lost sight of the suspect on Milltown Road in Penn Hills before finding his silver Pontiac sedan crashed into another vehicle, and then into a guardrail. When authorities approached, the complaint said, McCloud ran toward a heavily wooded area behind an Iowa Street home.
He was found hiding near a home in the 100 block of Mill Street, where he was arrested, police said.
Neither McCloud or the driver whose vehicle he collided with suffered any injuries.
Police said they found cocaine in a nearby garbage can and crack cocaine by the Mill Street home, with a combined street value just shy of $7,000.
McCloud did not have an attorney listed in court documents.
He is being held in the Westmoreland County jail, with a preliminary hearing set for Dec. 12.
Jack Troy is a TribLive reporter covering the Freeport Area and Kiski Area school districts and their communities. He also reports on Penn Hills municipal affairs. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in January 2024 after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh. He can be reached at jtroy@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.