An Upper Darby Highway Patrol officer suffered an ankle injury after being struck by a fleeing dirt bike rider near Montrose Avenue and Ivy Court on September 1, and police say the man now charged in the case was free on bail from a prior drug and assault arrest in Haverford Township at the time. Tynief J. McDaniel, 22, of the 5100 block of Race Street in Philadelphia, was taken into custody the next day at a home on Bywood Avenue and now faces aggravated assault and fleeing charges that could send him to state prison for years.
According to the Delco Times, Highway Patrol Division officers first spotted a male riding a purple dirt bike without a license plate on Harwood Avenue on September 1. Officers attempted to stop the bike on the 8900 block of West Chester Pike, and the rider initially stopped before driving off again, the paper reports. A highway patrol officer then attempted to intercept the bike near Montrose Avenue and Ivy Court, where the dirt bike struck the officer, leaving him with an ankle injury that required hospital treatment.
Officers pursued the fleeing rider and discharged three tasers into him near Montrose and Delaware avenues before he managed to get away, per the same account. During the chase, an officer located an iPhone that had fallen from the cyclist, and police body-camera video reportedly matched the rider’s description: a Black man with dreadlocks, sunglasses and a white t-shirt.
Phone Records Led Investigators to a Bywood Avenue Home
Detective Kevin Gamber filed a search warrant for the phone number tied to the recovered iPhone, which the Delco Times reports had been used to call 911 on July 29 to request a medical unit to the 1400 block of Bywood Avenue. That call had reportedly been placed by a Tonief McDaniel. A subsequent database search turned up a Tynief McDaniel with a prior arrest in Haverford Township on drug, harassment and assault charges, and investigators say his arrest photo from that case matched the dirt biker’s description…