{"id":112423,"date":"2026-02-12T22:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/112423\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T22:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:05:10","slug":"driver-pleads-guilty-to-deadly-u-haul-crash-into-erie-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/112423\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver pleads guilty to deadly U-Haul crash into Erie Canal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A man has admitted to a <a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/nys\/rochester\/public-safety\/2025\/09\/03\/suspect-dies-in-erie-canal-after-leading-police-on-chase-in-u-haul-truck-through-monroe--orleans-counties\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">deadly crash into the Erie Canal<\/a>\u00a0following a high-speed chase.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Armstrong, 43, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in Orleans County Court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say Reginald L. Russell, 56, was riding with Armstrong in a U-Haul truck loaded with items stolen from a Brockport Walgreens last September.<\/p>\n<p>Armstrong then led Monroe County sheriff&#8217;s deputies on a chase into Orleans County after allegedly refusing to pull over when authorities tried to stop them.<\/p>\n<p>Police say the men eventually drove onto the Erie Canal path in the town of Murray and then circled a farm field before getting back on the canal path and intentionally driving the truck into the canal.<\/p>\n<p>Russell\u2019s body was eventually recovered after deputies say he attempted to swim to shore, but struggled and went under the water.<\/p>\n<p>The DA&#8217;s office says Armstrong could receive four to eight years in prison when he is sentenced in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has admitted to a deadly crash into the Erie Canal\u00a0following a high-speed chase. Ryan Armstrong, 43,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[290,1611,136,138,137,139,294,11686,1592],"class_list":{"0":"post-112423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-app-public-safety","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-erie","11":"tag-erie-headlines","12":"tag-erie-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-public-safety","15":"tag-rochester","16":"tag-spectrum-news-staff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112423","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=112423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}