On Monday, a man in Pennsylvania was found dead under a bulldozer that was being driven by a Pennsylvania Game Commission worker and a state trooper. The police identified that man on Tuesday as Gregory Longenecker, but they’re not yet willing to say how he died—suggesting that he maybe died of a heart attack and that his position under a bulldozer was coincidental.
According to Lehigh Valley Live, the game commission worker was clearing brush using a bulldozer when he spotted a suspicious vehicle and, seemingly, about 10 marijuana plants being grown in the underbrush. He called the police, who responded and saw two men emerge from the underbrush. One was captured but the other, Longenecker, escaped. That led to a chase. From Lehigh Valley Live:
“An attempt to hail the other male was unsuccessful,” Beohm said in a news release. “The helicopter lost site of the male and was giving directions to the bulldozer of his last location.
“The Game Commission employee and a Trooper were on the bulldozer driving through the thick underbrush. The bulldozer stopped in the underbrush. The second male was located under the rear of the bulldozer deceased.”
David Boehm, the information officer for the local troop, told the Reading Eagle that “the reason it’s unclear if Longenecker was struck and killed by the bulldozer is that Longenecker, because of his age, could have had a heart attack while fleeing through the dense thicket.”
I am going to go ahead and say that it is possible that it is not a coincidence that the dead man was found underneath a bulldozer. The police seemingly didn’t provide any indication that the 51-year-old’s medical history would make him prone to heart attacks.
Either way, a man is now dead because he was caught growing marijuana, a drug that basically cannot kill you however much you have, and then ran from police, who could have been, I don’t know, preventing murders or eating donuts or anything else. Just a super cool country we have here.
Update, 10:34 p.m.: Yeah, doesn’t look like it was a heart attack. From the Reading Eagle:
Preliminary autopsy findings indicate a Reading man died of traumatic injuries after being run over by a Pennsylvania Game Commission bulldozer on state game lands in Penn Township, authorities said Wednesday.
[...]
State police internal affairs and the Berks County district attorney’s office are investigating the death, but authorities said it appears to be an accident.