HAZLETON - Scores of police officers scoured a neighborhood in the Alter Street business district with guns drawn Wednesday morning after the rear window of an unmarked police vehicle "exploded" when it was shot with something while a Hazleton detective sat inside.
City Police Chief Frank DeAndrea said the unnamed detective was not hurt.
He said the unmarked vehicle was parked at Fourth and Alter streets about 11:45 a.m. when the window "exploded as if shot out," blowing "90 percent" of the glass inside the vehicle.
"It was shot with something. I'm just not sure what caliber, if it was a BB from a passing motorist," Chief DeAndrea said.
Officers surrounded and swept buildings on Alter Street, between Third and Fifth streets, after a report of shots fired was sent through radio transmission to Luzerne County 911. The transmission asked other officers for assistance.
Within five minutes, Chief DeAndrea said, no less than 30 law enforcement officers converged at the location, set up a perimeter in the business district and got those outside into buildings for safety.
For 45 minutes, officers armed with assault weapons pointed westward crouched behind vehicles and stood on porches as colleagues conducted interviews and searched the neighborhood.
No shell casings or weapons, or people with weapons, were found at the scene, and it is unknown what was fired at the vehicle, Chief DeAndrea said. The incident could be the third shooting city police have dealt with since the weekend.
On Saturday, Angel Villalobos, 19, was fatally shot and a still-unidentified 24-year-old man was wounded in the 500 block of West Maple Street.
On Monday afternoon, Joseph E. Babbitt III, who at one point lived in Hazleton, allegedly shot a man from Northumberland County while in a vehicle at a restaurant parking lot off Route 309.
City police officers were serving warrants when Wednesday's incident happened, Chief DeAndrea said, and he does not believe anyone in the public had prior knowledge that was being done.
"At the same time, it's Hazleton, it's possible anyone could decide to take a shot at a police car and run. I don't know how else to politely answer that without telling you the truth," he said when asked by a reporter Wednesday afternoon.
Police could not recall an incident similar to Wednesday's in the past 15 years.
If anyone has information on the case they are asked to contact police at 459-4940.