Pa. Police Use Fire Department's Drone to Nab Knife-Wielding Suspect

The staff of a South Heidelberg Township restaurant fled the business in fear for their lives after an employee who wanted to work instead of return to his halfway house picked up a large kitchen knife, waved it around and pointed it at them, police said Monday.

South Heidelberg police were dispatched about 4 p.m. Saturday to Salute Italiano, 4716 Penn Ave., after the suspect, Benny R. Carver, 51, a resident of Wernersville Community Corrections Center, fled out the back of the restaurant.

Officers requested Wernersville-based Western Berks Fire Department to launch its drone. With the assistance of the aerial live video footage, the suspect was quickly found in a wooded area behind the state Department of Corrections complex.

Police Chief Leon J. Grim said officers followed Carver as he fled on a bicycle. The drone operator directed officers to the brush where Carver was hiding near the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks next to Caramist Drive.

When officers making contact with Carver, Grim said, Carver urged officers to shoot him, then lunged at Officer Mitchell Cole, who deployed his TASER, incapacitating Carver. Officers quickly took him into custody.

Carver was charged with five counts of making terroristic threats, three counts of simple assault and a single count each of possessing an instrument of crime, disorderly conduct and flight to avoid apprehension.

Following arraignment before District Judge Alvin B. Robinson in Reading Central Court, Carver was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail to await a hearing.

Grim provided the following account:

Carver entered the kitchen and told the owner that he had not returned to the corrections center the previous evening. He said he wanted to work during the current shift, even though he wasn't on that day's schedule.

The owner told Carver that he was not on the schedule and should leave.

Carver picked up the knife, waved it around and pointed it at other members of the kitchen staff, saying he was going to "kill the cops" if they came in. One worker said he was smacking the knife on the counters, and another said Caver pointed the knife at her and she and the other workers fled the building.

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