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WALNUTTOWN, Pa. – A New York City man is facing charges for a deadly head-on crash in Berks County over the weekend that killed two firefighters.<\/p>\n
Court documents say 27-year-old Alexander Sepulveda-Rivera admitted to using marijuana hours before the deadly collision that occurred when he allegedly drove on the shoulder of Kutztown Road and struck the firefighters who were riding in a side-by-side.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
Fire Chief Jeffory Buck and Assistant Fire Chief Robert Shick, Jr. were killed Saturday night in a head-on collision on Route 222.<\/p>\n
Buck and Shick were helping in the search for a missing woman, riding in a side-by-side utility vehicle on the shoulder of the road.<\/p>\n
Court documents say their vehicle was struck by a late-model Toyota Camry that was previously spotted swerving in its lane.<\/p>\n
An officer who responded to the crash was told by a witness that the driver and a passenger ditched the Camry after the fatal crash.<\/p>\n
Buck and Shick were taken to a local hospital where they were both pronounced dead from injuries sustained in the crash.<\/p>\n
According to an affidavit, officers caught up with Alexander Sepulveda-Rivera and the passenger walking on nearby Krause Road.<\/p>\n
Police placed Sepulveda-Rivera in custody, court documents say, and he admitted to falling asleep behind the wheel before the crash.<\/p>\n
An affidavit says Sepulveda-Rivera also admitted to using marijuana hours before the crash, and claimed responsibility for crack pipe police allegedly discovered during a search of the crashed Camry.<\/p>\n
Investigators later learned that Sepulveda-Rivera did not have a driver’s license and had an active warrant. He was taken to a local hospital for a blood test before being taken to Berks County Central Processing.<\/p>\n
Court documents show Sepulveda-Rivera faces charges of homicide by vehicle, accidents involving death, DUI, and driving without a license.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying:<\/p>\n
Walnuttown Fire and Rescue shared the news of their deaths on social media Saturday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Rest easy chiefs, we got it from here,” the post read, in part.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro ordered flags on state-owned property to fly at half staff to honor the fallen firefighters.<\/p>\n
Flags will remain lowered until the date of interment.<\/p>\n
What’s next:<\/p>\n
Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams will provide more information on the deadly incident during a news conference on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Funeral details for the fallen firefighters has not yet been announced.<\/p>\n
Berks County<\/a>Crime & Public Safety<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WALNUTTOWN, Pa. – A New York City man is facing charges for a deadly head-on crash in Berks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[75346,850,9,12,56,63,65,64,6620,618],"class_list":{"0":"post-187845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-crime-publicsafety","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-pa","17":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}