Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele announced that the investigation of the October 24 incident in Plymouth Meeting Township, during which an officer discharged his firearm at Dalton Lee Janiczek, a 21-year-old resident of Lower Gwynedd and a 2022 graduate of La Salle College High School in Wyndmoor (Springfield Township), found that it was a lawful use of force.
On the afternoon of October 24, a Whitpain Township police officer found Janiczek’s vehicle parked at a hotel following reports of erratic driving. Officials said Janiczek put the car in reverse and struck the police car several times. The officer then got out of the car and told Janiczek to stop, and Janiczek responded by driving directly at the officer, attempting to hit him. The officer fired his weapon at the vehicle but was unsuccessful in stopping Janiczek.
Janiczek is then said to have continued accelerating his vehicle and hitting the officer. As the injured officer attempted to apply a tourniquet to a leg wound, the report states that Janiczek returned to where the officer was in the parking lot and struck the officer three additional times as he lay injured on the ground…