Pittsburgh man charged in Johnstown assault, chase

JOHNSTOWN — A Pittsburgh man is accused of assaulting a woman during a robbery late Saturday and then leading police on a nearly 8-mile chase.

Johnstown police said Denzel Kendrick, 25, and another man followed the woman with their vehicle through a Solomon Homes parking lot — at one point striking her with the car — and then assaulted her just after 10 p.m.

Surveillance footage showed the men trying to take a purse or similar object from her before fleeing the scene, Johnstown police Sgt. Evan Dabbs said.

An officer traveling through the Von Lunen Road area spotted the vehicle, turned around and started pursuing, following the car through Dale onto the Route 56 bypass. Eventually, the chase continued into Richland Township and onto U.S. Route 219, Dabbs said.

With police from several jurisdictions giving chase, the car was pulled over just across the Cambria-Somerset county line, he said.

One person traveling in the getaway car apparently fled before the vehicle was stopped on Route 219, and efforts remain underway to locate the man.

Kendrick was taken into custody without further incident and awaits a preliminary hearing on aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and attempted robbery charges, as well as vehicle code violations, Dabbs said.

Police believe the assault was not a random act and that there appear to have been two separate incidents between the men and the woman they attacked, he said.

No one was transported for injury from the Solomon Homes crime scene, Dabbs said.