Neighbors shocked Susquehanna Twp. officer killed himself during standoff

Penn Live – by Eric Veronikis

CARROLL TOWNSHIP – Susquehanna Township Police Sgt. Ronald Reinhart Jr. and his wife kept to themselves, neighbors said.

So much so, neighbors of several years didn’t even know their names. They just knew the couple had “a lot of dogs.”

Still, the unfamiliarity didn’t soften the blow of finding out Reinhart, 41, took his life during a standoff with police, who tried to serve him with an arrest warrant on Monday afternoon.  

Ronald Reinhart Jr.

This type of tragedy isn’t supposed to happen in their development, which neighbors described as a typical, ‘boring’ midstate neighborhood.

“I was shocked. I am really sad,” said Audrey Reyes, who has lived in the same block as the Reinharts for three years.  “This type of incident never happens in this neighborhood.”

Reinhart, who police confirmed was a member of the Susquehanna Township Police Department, killed himself  at his home in the 100 block of Martel Circle at 12:42 p.m., police said.

He’d been an officer with Susquehanna Township since 1998. Police said they attempted to arrest Reinhart because he’d staged a jewelry theft in the 600 block of Park Ridge Drive in Upper Allen Township on July 25.

Not long after, police said, they’d received an anonymous tip that led investigators to the stolen jewelry, said Upper Allen Township Police Chief James Adams. Police found the jewelry in the 6500 block of Devonshire Heights Road in Lower Paxton Township, Adams said.

During the investigation, police learned that Reinhart allegedly staged the burglary and hid the jewelry in an attempt to frame another person for the crime, Adams said.

An armed Reinhart barricaded himself in his home as police showed up with an arrest warrant, Adams said. Martel Circle was shut down, and Cumberland and York County Special Response Teams responded to the scene.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the standoff began. Reinhart killed himself at 12:42 p.m., Adams said. The York County Coroner’s Office responded to the scene just before 4:30 p.m. Martel Circle was reopened around the same time.

“This is a very abnormal day for us,” said Christy Kreiger, a neighbor who went out to have breakfast in the morning. When she returned to South Mountain Estates neighborhood, she couldn’t get to her house along Martel Circle.

She, along with other neighbors, waited all afternoon and then watched as police and officials from the coroner’s office combed over the scene later in the afternoon.

There was visible damage to the front of Reinhart’s house.

The mailbox was knocked over, as was the top of a light post toward the end of the driveway of the bi-level house. The front storm door was damaged, which police boarded up before leaving the scene. The front picture window also was boarded up.

Police could be seen investigating a front bedroom on the second level of the house. They also searched the double garage, spending several hours inside.

The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office will hold a press conference on the incident at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Upper Allen Township Police Department.

Susquehanna Township Public Safety Director Robert Martin could not immediately be reached for comment on Reinhart.

Reinhart, who was a federal police officer for two years before joining Susquehanna Township Police Department, was charged with:

  • Burglary.
  • Criminal trespass.
  • Theft by unlawful taking or disposition.
  • Receiving stolen property.
  • Loitering and prowling at night time.
  • Tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
  • Obstructing administration of law or other governmental function.
  • Official oppression.
  • Criminal mischief.
  • False reports to law enforcement authorities.

Reinhart’s bio posted on the Susquehanna Township Police Department website states that he served in the U.S. Air Force as a security police/law enforcement specialist before becoming a federal police officers. During that time, he’d served on bases in Germany, Saudi Arabia and Maryland.

The bio also listed the following about Reinhart:

  • Reinhart graduated from the 8th Modular Police Academy at Harrisburg Area Community College in 1998.
  • Since joining Susquehanna Township Police Department, he’d served on the bicycle patrol, FTO and was a member of the Dauphin County Drug Task Force.
  • Reinhart was promoted to corporal in 2006 and sergeant in 2008.
  • He last served as the commander of B Platoon.
  • Reinhart was the president of the Police Bargaining Unit and co-chairman of the Candidate Advisory Board.
  • Reinhart attended many police-related schools, including the DEA Narcotics Investigator School, Police Executive Development and the Command Institute for Police Executives.
  • His awards have included Officer of the Quarter, Drew Comrey Order of Honor Medal and the Life Saving Medal.
  • He also was recognized by the American Heart Association for his actions during a cardiac emergency for which he is credited with helping to save the life of a township resident.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/08/neighbors_of_ronald_reinhart_j.html#incart_m-rpt-2

10 thoughts on “Neighbors shocked Susquehanna Twp. officer killed himself during standoff

  1. Another one whose conscience caught up with him….

    No sense in crying over spilled milk……….the damned coward.

  2. The area this took place in doesn’t have the best reputation in recent history.
    I think there were multiple ‘faculty/student incidents’ at the school, and some other crap I don’t remember. I also know some people from that same area, and let’s just say those folks are part of the problem, never the solution.

  3. Finally, a cop who died with honor by taking his own miserable life. All cops should look to this man for inspiration and act in like manner immediately.

  4. obviously by his prior record, its of no loss..

    and as it were , with his propensity to carry out illegal acts , he soon was going to end up dead anyways , so he saved some poor guy that he was no doubt going to frame for his own acts ,, and in my book that is a problem only delt with by execution
    so sooner or later he was going to eat a bullet ,, he just decided his were more tasty than the next guy he thought of setting up

    really no loss here

  5. “Reinhart killed himself at 12:42 p.m.”

    A coward right to the end.

    Why didn’t the sorry POS take some of his @sshole buddies with him.

    Pussy b#tch.

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