PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Police arrested a man on a warrant for murder in Maine after a pursuit Friday that prompted Pittsfield schools to enact a brief lockdown.
Keith Thorpe, 42, of Bangor is wanted in the homicide of 39-year-old Virginia Cookson, who was found dead in her home Wednesday.
Police posted on social media that officers were actively tracking a stolen vehicle from in a neighboring state earlier in the morning. Thorpe was caught near Euclid Avenue after making contact with a cruiser.
Thorpe is also being charged with numerous motor vehicle offenses and is expected to be arraigned at Pittsfield District Court and to extradited to Maine.
"As a precaution during the motor vehicle pursuit, all local schools were asked to shelter in place and based on the location of Taconic High School, that school was locked down," the Pittsfield Police Department wrote in a press release.
"The school safety actions lasted approximately five minutes."
A post-mortem examination was conducted Thursday on Cookson at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta, Maine, and her death was determined to be a homicide and an arrest warrant was issued for Thorpe for murder.
Just before 4 a.m. on Friday, the Pittsfield Police responded to a single motor vehicle crash near the intersection of West and Onota Streets. The car was unoccupied and items within led officers to believe that the operator may have been Thorpe, sparking an unsuccessful area search.
A few hours later, police responded to a report of a stolen vehicle on West Housatonic Street, and a "be on the lookout" was broadcast. Around 8:30 a.m., the stolen vehicle was located and officers were led on a motor vehicle pursuit that included the areas of West Street and intersecting streets.
"The suspect vehicle crossed the center divider, passed cars in a no-passing zone, and failed to stop for police," according to police.
"It should be noted that school bus operations were active at this time. The vehicle was eventually stopped in the area of Euclid Avenue after making contact with a police vehicle. No significant injuries were reported."
The operator of the stolen vehicle was positively identified as Thorpe and he was taken into custody without incident.
Neither Thorpe nor Cookson have any known connection to Pittsfield, police said, and no documented calls for service before today's event.
No further information is available at this time and some of the information in the press release was provided by Detective Tim Shaw of the Bangor Police Department.
Police had previously posted on Facebook that "The vehicle lead officers on a pursuit in the area of outer West St. and eventually headed back towards the city. Several attempts to stop the subject before passing Crosby Elementary were unsuccessful. The subject was apprehended moments later after attempting to flee on a dead-end street."
The post read that the suspect was believed to be wanted for "a very serious crime," which warranted the shelter-in-place for all schools that lasted five minutes.
"The Pittsfield Police Department asked all schools to shelter in place due to a community related incident (not related to our schools). The shelter in place lasted 5 minutes. We have no further information," the school district posted Friday morning.
Crosby Elementary School, located at 517 West St. was in the area of the pursuit.
"We understand how frightening this may have been to parents and children going to and from Crosby, but based on the subject's charges out of state we believed we needed to do everything in our power to apprehend him," the police wrote.
"Thankfully, the subject was taken into custody without injury to anyone."
Around noontime, Superintendent Joseph Curtis relayed this police's narrative to the district, explaining "The Pittsfield Public Schools has no other information at this time."
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BRTA Focuses on a New Run Schedule
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is still working on maintaining its run schedules after dropping the route realignment proposal.
Last Thursday's meeting was Administrator Kathleen Lambert's first official meeting taking over the reins; retiring director Robert Malnati stayed during a transition period that ended last month.
Lambert is trying to create a schedule that will lessen cancellations. There was a two-hour meeting the week before with the drivers union to negotiate run bids and Lambert is working with the new operating company Keolis, which is taking over from Transdev.
The board spoke about anonymous emails from drivers, which Lambert said she has not seen. iBerkshires was not able to see those letters, but has received some.
"They were lengthy emails from someone describing themselves as concerning BRTA employee, and there was a signed letter from a whole group of employees basically stating their concerns. So, you know, to me, it was a set of whistleblowers, and that, what my understanding is that this really triggers a need for some type of process to review the merits of these whistleblowers, not going to call them accusations, but basically expressions of concern," said member Stephen Bannon.
A letter iBerkshires received spoke of unhappy drivers who were considering quitting because of decisions being made without "input from frontline staff," frustration and falling morale, and the removal of the former general manager shortly after Lambert came in.
Lambert said it's difficult to navigate a new change. She also noted many drivers don't want to do Saturday runs and it has been hard negotiating with drivers on the new runs.
"I would like you all to keep in mind that the process of change is super difficult. Transdev has been here for 20 years, and some of these drivers have never known any other operating company, the way some of the operations have been handled has been archaic," she said. "So getting folks up to speed on how a modern transit system works is going to be painful for them. So I don't want to say that I'm unsympathetic, because I am sympathetic, but I am trying to coax people along with a system that's going to seem very strange to them."
The board spoke about better communication between them and Lambert, citing cooperation will be best moving forward.
"There's just a lot of stuff in the air right now, and there are a lot of fires to put out to make this a coordinated effort. And if we don't keep our communications open and be straightforward, then you get blindsided about how you know the input that you could get from us about your position, and how you know what's going on in your direction, and we get blindsided. And I think that we have to make sure that this is a collaboration," said member Sherry Youngkin.
"Both sides have responsibilities, because in the long run, this advisory board is going to have to make decisions as to how we brought forward and if we've gone forward in a fair and helpful way. And I think that's hopefully what everybody is looking for also."
Transdev and Keolis held a three-day recruiting event interviewing almost 40 candidates and offering jobs to eight, but only three stayed on to start training. Lambert said it was disappointing but she will keep trying to retain more people.
In her first report to the board, she noted that ridership dipped a little over 10 percent, but still remains higher than last year, adding that was because of cancellations of services because of the lack of drivers.
Like the last meeting, some of the advisory board members were torn over the start of the Link413 service, worried that the start of the service took drivers away and the numbers of riders are low.
Lambert, however, said the ridership has doubled from last month.
"As I've spoken before, we have, generally, a six-month adoption for brand-new service before you can really go in and evaluate, are you being successful based on the grant that my predecessor wrote along with the team for PBTA and RTA, we are ahead of schedule, which is pretty good, so I'm hoping that will continue to improve," she said.
Member Renee Wood said the board never approved the service, adding the only thing she could find in the minutes was a vote to accept the equipment. She said it was supposed to be put on the agenda to discuss.
"The Link413 service has been three years in the making. It's been a grant that was accepted and has been working with our partners, PVTA and FRTA, to put into place. So I don't have the entire history of how that process worked, but it's been three years in the making, and did we not understand that once we accept that grant that we were going to put in new service?" Lambert said.
The board discussed if Title VI, the Civil Rights Act, was followed with an accurate review and accurate amount of time for public comment period on the service changes and if its attorney should review if the grant conditions were properly followed.
Lambert said changes had the 60-day comment period included in the proposed route realignment packet, giving the opportunity for the community to respond to that as well but will look into the legality of the situation with their attorney.
The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is still working on maintaining its run schedules after dropping the route realignment proposal. click for more
The town election is less than a month away and, unlike recent ones, all open seats are uncontested, with even a vacancy remaining on the Planning Board.
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