A man was detained yesterday afternoon after leading Pittsburgh police on a frigid three-hour chase across the icy Allegheny River, following allegations of burglary and trespassing at a Veterans Affairs building. Gary Cawley, 47, now faces multiple charges, including burglary, trespassing, possessing instruments of crime, evading arrest, and disorderly conduct, as reported by WPXI.
The pursuit commenced around 1 p.m. after Cawley was allegedly discovered tampering with an electrical panel at the old VA site by authorities and despite multiple orders to stop, Cawley fled across a snowy field and through the woods, spatting onto the frozen surface of the Allegheny River, managing to trek several miles as police followed, at one point causing a halt to railroad operations to ensure his capture, according to details from the criminal complaint, provided by WTAE.
Sky 4 footage showed Cawley, donning a life vest tossed to him by onlookers, arrested and handcuffed after an officer blocked his path on the ice. “Just hanging out at work and all of a sudden 20 police cars, EMS, everything. They just swarmed the place,” Carson Svidron, a witness, told WPXI, and he confessed in defiance that he’d “walk all the way to Mississippi” rather than surrendering to the police, as per the court documents…