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District Attorney Kelly Callihan said that the chain of events that culminated in the shooting of 27-year-old Elip Cheatham by police began a day earlier when he and two cousins were involved in a robbery.
Cheatham, Cardell “CJ” Clinton and Hayward Gaines III are accused of extorting/robbing a Kernville couple of $1,000 allegedly owed to Cheatham’s brother, Cirilito, who then was lodged in the Cambria County Prison.
A day later, at about 12:30 a.m., Clinton was wounded in a shooting outside Edder’s Den, a bar on North Sheridan Street in Johnstown’s Oakhurst section. The alleged shooter, ShyTyquon Lawton, was a relative of the couple and reportedly shot Clinton in retaliation, Callihan said.
Here is a summary she gave of the state police investigation into the events following the shooting in the bar parking lot:
Sgt. Gerald Stofko, on routine patrol in Oakhurst, hears the shots and sees people scattering. He observes the shooter getting into a white Pontiac Grand Am driven by a woman later identified as Latoya Just. The car heads south, at a slow speed, on North Sheridan Street.
Stofko pursues the car while calling for backup. Lawton soon jumps out of the vehicle, runs away and is later caught.
Another city policeman positions his patrol car across both lanes on North Sheridan, with lights and siren activated, in an attempt to stop Just’s car. She stops and obeys police commands.
Other police arrive. The first officer parks his vehicle at the entrance of a supermarket parking lot in front of a state liquor store facing North Sheridan with lights and siren activated. Three other officers arrive, parking their vehicles in the roadway with lights and sirens activated, in front of the Pontiac, effectively blocking both lanes of traffic.
Two other officers, who had chased Lawton farther up the road, hear and see a vehicle “coming at a very high rate of speed, revving its engine and continuing to accelerate into the area of the police cruisers.”
The vehicle – a white Oldsmobile driven by Cheatham – speeds into the area of the stopped vehicle and police at a speed estimated at 60 mph. The driver ignores commands to stop and makes no attempt to slow despite “four to five police cruisers with activated lights and sirens blocking the roadway near the Pontiac.”
At the time of the Oldsmobile’s acceleration, the handcuffed woman and the three police officers are in the roadway. The three officers open fire.
Gaines, in a statement to police, indicates he saw “a lot of police officers in the street, stating at least six were in the street and sidewalk area where they were heading, and he knew the police had it blocked off.”
Gaines, the front-seat passenger, is grazed in the leg by a bullet. Clinton, wounded in the first shooting, is lying across the back seat.
Police learn during the probe that after the shooting in the bar parking lot, Clinton, with the assistance of Gaines, stumbles to a grassy area on Daniel Street.
Cheatham, meanwhile, gets in the Oldsmobile in the parking lot and heads toward the Greater Johnstown Middle School, when he abruptly changes course, hits a utility pole and heads to Daniel Street, where he gets the wounded Clinton. He then accelerates onto North Sheridan Street.
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