OHIO TOWNSHIP, Pa. — On Wednesday morning, many shoppers at the Home Depot in Ohio Township hadn’t heard about the chaos that unfolded outside about 24 hours earlier: an early-morning crime spree on Tuesday that led to a customer tackling Lawrence Gelormini.
“It’s nuts,” said Keith Schwenke, who visits the home improvement store frequently. “You never know what could happen. There’s a lot of people in and out of here.”
Ohio Township police say they were called around 7:30 a.m. after the store manager said a man, later identified as Gelormini, was passed out in his vehicle, slumped over in the driver’s seat. Court documents said when the man came to, he immediately tried to speed away, almost hitting an officer and a patrol car. He then drove through the parking lot, according to investigators, and collided with another vehicle as its driver was pulling into a spot.
Police say Gelormini got out of the car and ran away. A passenger of the vehicle that was hit chased after him and was able to restrain him on the ground.
Police say Gelormini resisted arrest, injuring an officer. They soon learned that Gelormini’s license is suspended and that the car he was driving was stolen from Pittsburgh’s Zone 1.
“[It’s] a little crazy, but [I’m] not surprised, well, just because there’s so much access to these places now. I mean, I grew up here when 279 wasn’t here and all that,” said Keith Foster, a local customer who was raised in the area.
Multiple identification cards with various names were located on his person as well as a Cartier watch in his pocket, according to a criminal complaint.
Court documents said Gelormini kept apologizing and stated that he consumed crack cocaine, letting them know about a crack pipe in his car that he said he used earlier that morning.
Gelormini was also wanted on charges out of Kennedy Township, including resisting and evading arrest from a separate incident.
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