Pocono News Section

Man Charged with Firing at W-B Police

Man Charged with Firing at W-B Police - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 11:00AM EST

Reported by: Eyewitness News
Tuesday, Sep 8, 2009 @ 11:00am EST
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY -- Wilkes-Barre police say that four of their officers were hit by shot gun pellets early Monday morning on Parrish Street. Fortunately, none of those officers were seriously hurt.

The incident boiled up from a call to a large fight in that Wilkes-Barre neighborhood. Residents there tell Eyewitness News theyÕve had enough of the constant crime and problems.

Police cars filled the 200 block of Parrish Street near the intersection of Loomis Street in Wilkes-Barre early Tuesday morning. Joe Dierolf said, "About 2:30-3:00 in the morning we heard three gunshots go off. My girlfriend actually woke me up and we ran downstairs and there were 6 or 7 cop cars."

Wilkes-Barre police tell Eyewitness News that they responded to a large fight at the 200-block of Parrish Street. At the scene police observed 34-year-old Vishamraj Ramnarain from Queens, New York in the middle of Parrish Street.

Ramnarain allegedly fired gunshots, hitting four officers with shot gun pellets, but no one was injured. After a short pursuit Ramnarain was then taken into custody.

An eyewitness that we spoke to said this Wilkes-Barre neighborhood use to be very nice and quiet, but things have gone downhill over the past several years. "We had to put an alarm system on our house. We had thousands and thousands of dollars worth of stuff stolen out of our garage, and the same thing with the rest of the neighbors. It's just getting bad and we want to move. We hate it here," said Dierolf.

Ramnarain was slapped with six charges for the incident and he was arraigned just before 11:00 A. M.

Despite the shot gun pellets hitting the officers, somehow all four avoided any significant injuries, and as far as we know did not go to the hospital.