An Allentown man will spend years in prison for leading police on a high-speed chase through city neighborhoods three years ago.
Paris Bartlett, 50, was sentenced Monday to 6-13 years in state prison for leading police on a chase on June 16, 2023, according to Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan.
Allentown police and state police were working together and pulled over Bartlett in the area of South Third and West Union streets as part of a drug investigation. Bartlett stopped, but reversed and hit an undercover police vehicle, then drove forward, almost hitting a state trooper, the DA’s office said in a a release.
That trooper fired two rounds from his handgun, hitting Bartlett’s windshield, the release states. Bartlett was not injured.
Bartlett then fled through Allentown and nearly hit two pedestrians crossing Third Street, then drove the wrong way on the Hamilton Street Bridge, causing several vehicles to avoid hitting him, the DA’s office said.
Bartlett drove through several neighborhoods, running stop signs, on the city’s East Side, according to the DA. Bartlett then hit a vehicle and a marked state police vehicle before stopping in the 500 block of South Carlisle Street.
Investigators searched Bartlett’s vehicle and found cocaine, fentanyl and synthetic marijuana. He was found guilty in May of charges of fleeing or attempting to elude an officer and misdemeanor offenses of accidents involving death or injury while not licensed, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment and drug possession.
The DA’s office said the trooper who shot at Bartlett’s vehicle was justified when he shot the car.