2 more dirt bike riders caught in Reading police crackdown
Apr. 29—The cat-and-mouse game between Reading police and riders of illegal dirt bikes continued over the weekend with two more chases of riders ending with two young men in custody.
According to arrest papers, an undisclosed number of officers were assigned to the dirt bike detail to combat the ongoing issue of off-road motorcycles and ATVs being driven, often carelessly and recklessly, on city streets. Last week two riders were arrested during the directed patrols on two consecutive days.
The action unfolded around dusk Saturday and Sunday.
According to the arrest documents:
On Saturday about 8 p.m., Officer Christopher Wiesner, while with another officer on a dirt bike patrol, was at a store at Fifth and Spring streets when a group of ATVs and dirt bikes rode past westbound on Spring Street.
The officers jumped into the patrol vehicle, and a pursuit ensued. The riders picked up speed and scattered. By the time the patrol car caught up to the group, there were only three left on Spring Street.
One of the bikes turned onto Centre Avenue and headed south. The officers continued pursuit.
A pickup truck was stopped for a red light at West Spring and Front streets, facing west. The dirt bike rider, later identified as Jenzen E. Sanchez, 28, of Reading, drove into the opposite lane to go around the truck, running a red light.
Police continued to chase Sanchez on West Spring Street. In the 300 block, he suddenly ditched the bike and began to run.
Wiesner chased him on foot for about 200 yards until Sanchez collapsed just west of the intersection of West Spring, River Road and Gordon streets, where he was taken into custody.
Sanchez of the 500 block of Cedar Street remained free to await a hearing following arraignment Sunday before District Judge Kim L. Bagenstose in Reading Central Court.
Sanchez faces charges of fleeing or attempting to elude police, driving an unregistered vehicles and traffic offenses.
In the Sunday night arrest:
Officer William Fursin III was assigned to the detail between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Though he did not have a partner, he could depend on assistance from officers assigned to the regular patrol shift.
Shortly before 8 p.m., Fursin was alerted via radio that while another officer was transporting a civilian for unspecified reasons, two dirt bike riders were constantly driving around his marked patrol vehicle and taunting him in the 1200 block of Linden Street.
Fursin headed to the area. Meanwhile, the officer who was being taunted said he was behind two of the dirt bikes in the area of 12th and Pike streets. He turned on his emergency lights and sirens, and a pursuit ensued.
The dirt bike riders, traveling south on North 12th, ran several stop signs then turned west on Marion Street, then traveled south in the wrong direction on North 11th Street, which is one-way northbound.
The chase continued west on Robeson Street and south on North Ninth Street, west on Spring Street, then south on Railroad Street, which brought them to the shopping center in the 900 block of North Sixth Street.
By this time four patrol vehicles were in pursuit.
The rider, later identified as Juan C. Rivera-Diaz, 21, of Reading, fled behind the shopping center. Police chased him through the back of the shopping plaza to a brush-filled field.
He fell off the bike soon after entering the field.
Two of the officers tackled him and took him into custody. One of those suffered scrapes and cuts and was treated in Reading Hospital.
Rivera-Diaz of the 500 block of Gordon Street was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $10,000 bail to await a hearing following arraignment Sunday night. According to online court records, he hadn't posted bail as of Monday afternoon.
He faces similar charges as Sanchez.
