Police: Wanted man fled from cops, twice, ditched bag of drug paraphernalia
SHENANDOAH – A Shenandoah man is in Schuylkill County Prison after police say he ran from them twice, ditching a bag containing drug paraphernalia in one instance.
Derek Yashinsky, 33, of 138 South White Street was charged by Shenandoah Police with misdemeanor flight to avoid apprehension, obstruction of justice, possession of offensive weapons, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was also charged by West Mahanoy Township Police with felony fleeing or eluding police, misdemeanor flight to avoid apprehension, summary scattering rubbish, and traffic infractions.
According to the criminal complaints, filed by Shenandoah Patrolman Matthew Williams and West Mahanoy Patrolman Mark Hysock, borough police saw Yashinsky enter the Breakaway Smoke Shop at Jardin and Centre Streets around 8pm Feb. 2.
Officers knew Yashinsky has a warrant from Schuylkill county Adult Probation, and when Yashinsky saw the patrol car, he walked back out the door. Police exited their car and called out to him, at which point he took off running.
He ran down Jardin Street, Oak Street, dropped a zipper bag, and turned onto Main Street and onto Cherry Street before police lost eyes on him.
Borough Police, along with Mahanoy City and Frackville, surrounded his home and his father advised that he had fled, but allowed police to search the home for him.
The father was asked to call police if Yashinsky returned home.
At the police station, they searched the bag he dumped and found a blue straw with white powder residue, four capped syringes, a sparkle-colored zipper pouch with ten small clear baggies with white powder, and a wooden butterfly knife.
Around 7pm on Feb. 15, Captain Travis Bowman requested assistance from West Mahanoy Township Police for assistance in locating Yashinsky, who was known to flee when seeing a police officer or police vehicle. Borough police had reason to believe he would be in the area of Main and Lloyd Streets and township police used Jardin Street to get there.
They came across Yashinsky and his girlfriend in the 100 block of West Lloyd, and they took off.
A few hours later, just before midnight, Patrolman Hysock spotted a maroon SUV on South Lehigh Street at East Oak and the vehicle sped off at a high rate of speed.
Hysock wrote in a court filing that he believed the SUV was a family vehicle for Yashinsky, and that his girlfriend lived in that area.
The SUV fled onto Main Street and onto the Gold Star Highway at a high rate of speed, turning onto Furnace Street.
Hysock said he turned onto Pioneer Road to cut the vehicle off. He nearly did, and the SUV swerved around him. Hysock said at that point, he made eye contact with the driver, confirming it was Yashinsky, accompanied by his girlfriend.
He lost eyes of the vehicle at the Gold Star Highway and spotted it again on Herald Road. It pulled over near Bicentennial Park, when both Yashinsky and his girlfriend bailed and ran.
They ran across the Emerick Street foot bridge, at which point Yashinsky tossed his cell phone onto the ground. Yashinsky ran behind a row of homes in the 200 block of East Oak Street and his girlfriend gave up and blocked Hysock’s path into the yard, saying she didn’t know where he went.
She was detained at the time and told police that she didn’t know why she was running and said she was yelling at Yashinsky the entire time, telling him to stop the vehicle, or at least slow down.
The SUV was owned by Yashinsky’s mother, police found.
Yashinsky was taken into custody without incident around 1:45am at Bower and Oak Street.
He was committed to Schuylkill County Prison, unable to post $20,000 cash bail.
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