{"id":104547,"date":"2026-02-04T04:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T04:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/104547\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T04:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T04:30:26","slug":"bucks-county-neighbors-on-edge-amid-crime-spree-linked-to-group-residence-in-bensalem-twp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/104547\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks County neighbors on edge amid crime spree linked to group residence in Bensalem Twp."},"content":{"rendered":"

BENSALEM TWP., Pa. (WPVI) — A group residence in Bucks County is sparking concern in the community.<\/p>\n

Investigators say troubled young men who live there are simply walking away from the facility in Bensalem and committing violent crimes.<\/p>\n

For example, Christina LaBoy, of Bensalem, says it was early Monday morning when she was carjacked. Several young men surrounded her car and one of them put a gun to her head.<\/p>\n

“It was terrifying. I froze. I didn’t know what to do, but I just listened to what they told me to do and they took my car,” said LaBoy.<\/p>\n

Approximately 24 hours later, another car theft was reported in the same general area.<\/p>\n

Police dash-cam video shows a Bensalem police vehicle getting rammed by that second stolen vehicle, a short time before officers made two arrests.<\/p>\n

Police also recovered a pocket knife and a stolen semi-automatic handgun.<\/p>\n

The suspects, who have since been linked to both crimes, included the 15-year-old driver and 18-year-old Tharyn Battis, who is a resident of the Saint Francis and St. Vincent Home for Children in Bensalem.<\/p>\n

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Police Commissioner William McVey says reports of young men simply leaving that facility and creating problems in the township is nothing new, but he says what has historically been reports of property crime is now developing into violent crimes involving a gun.<\/p>\n

“What we’re seeing now is an increase in chaos, stealing from local merchants, breaking into cars, and now this one we can’t tolerate: pointing a gun at a young woman and carjacking her,” said McVey.<\/p>\n

According to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Saint Francis and St. Vincent is a place where adolescents and young adults, primarily from Philadelphia, who’ve had run-ins with the law, are remanded by the courts.<\/p>\n

“Serving the needs of this vulnerable population while maintaining a positive relationship with our neighbors in Bensalem remain our top priorities,” said the Archdiocese in a statement.<\/p>\n

McVey says that while he appreciates the facility’s mission, he must insist on new policies that will ensure their clients can no longer readily walk away, late at night, unsupervised.<\/p>\n

“It has to stop,” he says. “They need to take more action at the facility and hold people accountable and be more responsible because we can’t have this going through a township.”<\/p>\n

Tharyn Battis has since been charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, car theft, and weapons violations.<\/p>\n

He remains behind bars in lieu of 10% of $3 million bail.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BENSALEM TWP., Pa. (WPVI) — A group residence in Bucks County is sparking concern in the community. Investigators…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[50447,191,193,192,194],"class_list":["post-104547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bensalem","tag-50447","tag-bensalem","tag-bensalem-headlines","tag-bensalem-news","tag-bensalem-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}