Several Towamencin Police Department officers received a distinguished unit citation on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 for their work on a vehicle break-in turned pursuit in Jan. 2025. From left to right are Detective Patrick Kilroy, Officer John Slaughter, Officer Brandon Kinest, Detective Sergeant Daniel Jusko, Sergeant Travis Wood, Police Specialist Alysa Cianciarulo, and Chief Tim Troxel. (Credit: Towamencin Police)
Officer also honored for tracking down thefts from businesses
Several Towamencin Township police officers received high honors on Wednesday night, earning citations for work well done in the first few months of 2025.
“When a unit earns this, and does something to this level, it gets recognized with a plaque: everybody will be named, and they will be recognized in perpetuity at the police station,” said police Chief Tim Troxel.
Recognized with a police distinguished unit citation were police Sergeant Travis Wood, Detective Sgt. Dan Jusko, Detective Patrick Kilroy, Officers Brandon Kinest and John Slaughter, and police specialist Alysa Cianciarulo, for their work together in early January.
“In the early morning hours of January 6, 2025, the police department received a call from a resident reporting two unidentified people who were attempting to break into their car in the Towamencin Condominiums complex,” said Troxel.
“Sergeant Wood and Officers Slaughter and Kinest responded to the area. The officers located a black Chrysler 300 that was stopped in the roadway with its headlights off and all the doors standing open, with multiple people moving around outside of the vehicle, in the 300 block of Bunker Hill Road,” he said.
As Wood approached the vehicle on foot, Slaughter and Kinest did so in their patrol cars, when a pursuit began.
“As Officers Slaughter and Kinest pulled up to the front of the Chrysler, the unidentified subjects immediately re-entered the Chrysler, and before either officer could exit their vehicle, the driver of the Chrysler accelerated past Officer Slaughter’s vehicle and proceeded to ram into the front of Officer Kinest’s vehicle, which was stopped behind Officer Slaughter’s vehicle,” Troxel said.
The driver continued to flee, hitting a parked vehicle in the process.
“The impact with the parked car was forceful enough to spin it sideways, causing it to strike Sergeant Wood, who had been walking past the vehicle while approaching the suspects on foot,” the chief said.
The driver eventually hit the side of a carport on the 200 block of Bunker Hill Road, where three persons left the Chrysler and ran into a nearby wooded area.
“Officers pursued the fleeing subjects on foot, and with the assistance of a K9 team from Montgomery Township Police, Officer Kinest was able to locate one of the subjects, believed to be the driver of the Chrysler, hiding under a bush near Liberty Bell Drive and Old Morris Road,” Troxel said.
That person was taken into custody, and later investigation found that the suspect was from Delaware and the Chrysler had been stolen in New Jersey, according to the chief. The two detectives and specialist then continued the investigation, ultimately learning that the group was part of an organized theft ring.
“As a result of their efforts, a second suspect vehicle was identified from the condos, and Police Specialist Cianciarulo was able to develop a latent fingerprint froman item left in the Chrysler, resulting in the identification of a second suspect,” Troxel said.
“The quick response and actions by the patrol officers, combined with the continued investigative efforts of the detectives, is an example of excellent teamwork and diligence,” he said, as the group received a round of applause from the township supervisors.
A solo award was also presented the same night, as the chief detailed a departmental letter of merit awarded to Officer James Bonner for his work investigating a theft report from Nov. 11, 2024, from a company vehicle at a business on Detweiler Road.
“During his initial investigation, he learned several other local businesses were victims of theft as well — somebody had gone in there and kind of rooted around at all the businesses, in the evenings, and had taken a bunch of stuff: construction equipment, tools, different things from a bunch of different businesses, to the tune of almost $24,000,” said the chief.
Instead of handing the case over to a detective, “Officer Bonner decided to run with this case on his own,” and was able to find a video image of a suspect vehicle, shared it with other local departments, which led to an ID of the vehicle and its owner, which the officer then used to secure a search warrant.
“After obtaining search warrants for that suspect’s vehicle, and evidence of those thefts, as well as evidence of thefts from several other townships, also totaling in the tens of thousands of dollars, they were able to put everything together and make an arrest,” the chief said.
That suspect was taken into custody, and “the case was so tight” the suspect waived their preliminary hearing, the chief said: “It just shows the dedication and hard work that these guys put in every day. He took this case, and decided to run with it.”
“To be able to tie this all together, it takes a lot of time and effort, and the easy thing would be ‘OK, I’m just going to hand this off, and I’ll never have to deal with it again, and make it somebody else’s problem.’ The fact that he showed this initiative, speaks volumes about the quality of work that he does for us, and all the officers of this department do for us every day.”
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