previously entered open guilty pleas<\/a> to felony charges of possession of a firearm by a person prohibited and firearms not to be carried without a license. Additional charges, including aggravated assault, were dismissed under the plea.<\/p>\nAccording to a criminal complaint filed by Upper Darby Detective William Gottsch:<\/p>\n
Police were called to the 100 block of North Pennock Avenue about 11:15 a.m. on Dec. 23, 2023, after residents heard gunfire and saw a man with a weapon.<\/p>\n
Arriving officers made contact with Harrington, who told them he had been involved in an incident involving his white Mercedes and a black truck.<\/p>\n
Police found two fired casings next to the Mercedes.<\/p>\n
Harrington told police he was driving on Pennock toward Parkview Avenue when the truck driving in the opposite direction came head-to-head with his car.<\/p>\n
Neither driver could pass the other, but Harrington was unable to back up because another car was behind him.<\/p>\n
Harrington said the driver and passenger of the truck got out and started yelling at him. The driver had his hand in his pocket, he said. Harrington said he got out the Mercedes and ran toward West Chester Pike to avoid the men. As he ran, he heard gunshots and only returned when he saw police arrive and felt safe.<\/p>\n
A witness who was traveling behind the Mercedes indicated the two men got out of the truck and posted up to fight with the Mercedes driver, who had also gotten out of his vehicle.<\/p>\n
The driver of the Mercedes and the truck driver were both clutching at their waists as though they had firearms, that witness said. They said the Mercedes driver ran off, and one of the men from the truck pulled out a weapon and fired towards Parkview Road.<\/p>\n
But a review of a nearby surveillance video system showed Harrington yell, \u201cGo ahead, go ahead, go ahead,\u201d then raise a firearm and fire twice toward the men from the truck.<\/p>\n
A police K-9 officers recovered a black Ruger handgun tucked behind a rear tire of a vehicle on Pennock. The video also showed Harrington lingering in that area after the shooting.<\/p>\n
Police later determined the gun was stolen out of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Dean Picciotti, standing in for ADA Amy Cappelli before Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan last week, sought a sentence of 6 to 12 years and forfeiture of the firearm.<\/p>\n
Defense counsel Chuck Peruto said that was an \u201coutrageous\u201d amount of time, given the circumstances.<\/p>\n
Peruto said his client was someone who has tried to do the right thing for years, but Harrington\u2019s family member had been murdered in 2022, and his family testified at trial in Philadelphia. During the course of that trial, Peruto said, all of the family was threatened, so Harrington believed this incident might have been related to that murder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just brought a lot of heat to my family,\u201d Harrington told the judge. \u201cI just felt threatened. I feared for my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peruto added that Harrington had carried a firearm for years without incident and that he would not have been arrested but for what Peruto said was an \u201cambush\u201d that day. He added that Harrington was on parole at the time and has already been assigned 24 months of back time that he will have to serve in addition to this sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendant did not start this battle,\u201d Peruto said. \u201cThis was brought to him and he thought that it was involving the murder.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge noted that Harrington is still not allowed to carry a firearm and warned that he could face even more prison time if he does it again.<\/p>\n
Harrington had been free on $25,000 cash bail since Feb. 6, 2024, according to online court records. In addition to prison time, he must forfeit the firearm and provide a DNA sample to state police. Harrington is not eligible for early release.<\/p>\n
Daily Times reporter Pete Bannan contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Philadelphia man involved in a 2023 road rage shooting has been sentenced to 3 to 6 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[46,212,182,139,28,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-189432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-courts","tag-delaware-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189432","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=189432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}