Thursday, July 23, 2020

Traffic Stop Leads to Shenandoah Man Being Charged with Assault

A traffic stop in East Union Township Wednesday evening led to a man being locked up in Schuylkill County Prison.

According to East Union Township Police Chief Thomas Rentschler, on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020 around 10:20pm, while monitoring speed on Main Boulevard, a silver van was clocked speeding in a 35 mph zone.

A traffic stop was conducted on Route 924/Shenandoah Mountain Road on the driver of the van, Braulio Sanchez-Ocasio, 49, of Shenandoah.

As Chief Rentschler made contact with Sanchez-Ocasio, the driver became argumentative.

Chief Rentschler then returned to his police vehicle to check Sanchez-Ocasio's information.

While Rentschler ran the information and began to write out a citation for speeding, Sanchez-Ocasio got out of the van and began to approach the police vehicle.

Rentschler ordered Sanchez-Ocasio to return to his vehicle and replied that he would not.

Eventually Sanchez-Ocasio sat down in his vehicle but would not close the door and began to reach around inside his vehicle for something and would not comply with commands.

At this time Rentschler told Sanchez-Ocasio he was under arrest for obstruction of justice, but the man continued to resist and refuse to cooperate.

A struggle ensued in the middle of Route 924 to the point where Rentschler called for assistance from the Shenandoah Police.

After being handcuffed, Shenandoah Police arrived and they attempted to place him in the patrol vehicle.  

Sanchez-Ocasio became combative again and kicked the Shenandoah Police Officer in the face.  

Sanchez-Ocasio was eventually taken into custody and arraigned by on-call Magisterial District Judge Christina Hale, Frackville, on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, recklessly and endangering another person, as well as being cited for speeding.

Sanchez-Ocasio was  transported to Schuylkill County Prison after not being able to post $25,000 straight cash bail.