• U.S.

Former State Trooper Fatally Shot After Killing 2 People

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Police investigate at exit 180 off of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Sunday, March 20, 2016, in Fort Littleton, Pa. A retired state trooper killed a turnpike toll collector and a security guard in a holdup attempt at a toll plaza and then was shot dead by troopers while trying to escape with the money, authorities said. (Daniel Zampogna/PennLive.com via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT
Police investigate at exit 180 off of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, in Fort Littleton, Pa, on Mar. 20, 2016.Daniel Zampogna—PennLive.com/AP
By Sarah Begley

A retired Pennsylvania state trooper killed two people after killing two people while attempting to rob a tollbooth on Sunday before being fatally shot himself.

Clarence D. Briggs, 55, first told two tollbooth employees to go into a building nearby their station on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, where he tried to tie them up. They got loose and tried to escape; around the same time, a vehicle to collect fares arrived on the scene, CNN reports. In the resulting chaos, Briggs shot and killed one of the toll workers, Daniel Crouse, as well as a security guard for the vehicle, Ronald Heist. Briggs attempted to move money from the vehicle into his car, but police soon arrived on the scene, at which point a state trooper fatally shot Briggs.

The chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike expressed sympathy for the families of the deceased, calling it “a day that none of us will soon forget.”

[CNN]

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