Jeep crash captured in protest video
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
A Facebook Live video of protesters demonstrating in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis helped Monessen police investigate a car crash that occurred Sunday.
Police and Monessen firefighters were called to Eastgate Avenue (state Route 906) in front of Keystone Bakery around 2:23 p.m. Sunday after a Jeep Cherokee crashed into and sheared a utility pole and the driver fled the scene, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Erica Lynn Cappelli, 28, of Caste Drive, Pittsburgh, allegedly told Lt. Dave Yuhasz she was driving the Jeep on Eastgate Avenue and got distracted by the protesters, who were standing on a grassy knoll in front of the bakery. The demonstrators were not blocking traffic. Cappelli allegedly told police she lost control of the Jeep, went off the road and struck the utility pole.
Knowing the 911 caller reported that the driver of the Jeep fled the scene, Yuhasz inspected the vehicle.
“Deployment of the passenger side airbag indicates that there was a passenger in this seat,” Yuhasz wrote in the affidavit. “I also noticed the driver’s seat was further away from the dash, which is not consistent with a person being 5 foot, 3 inches, which is the height of Cappelli.”
After firefighters cleaned up the wreckage, they informed Yuhasz that the accident was captured on a Facebook Live recording of the peaceful protests.
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