After plowing her SUV through the front doors of the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum on Route 15 in South Williamsport, Theresa Robinson Salazar, still behind the wheel, asked a very shaken museum employee and witness “‘Are you scared? You should be scared.’ She then pressed the accelerator down, revving the engine,” borough police alleged in an affidavit.
No one in the museum was injured in the harrowing ordeal that occurred about 1 p.m. Sunday and resulted “in extensive damage to two sets of double doors and an interior wall,” police said.
“She attempted to accelerate the vehicle through a wall,” the court document said of Salazar.
At the time, there were four employees in the gift shop, which is at the front of the building, and about 40 visitors in the museum portion of the structure, police said.
Salazar, 56, of 928 W. Fourth St., was taken into custody without incident. She was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police cruiser and taken to police headquarters, where she was arraigned via video on several felonies.
PHIL HOLMES/Sun-Gazette
“Little League management advised us that they have had an extensive history with Salazar” and that she has been trespassing on their property, the affidavit stated.
Salazar’s family includes George and Bert Bebble, who were two of the three first managers of Little League Baseball in 1939, along with Carl Stotz, according to PennLive. She claims that her family should also be included as the founders of Little League Baseball, PennLive said.
“She engaged in reckless conduct by driving her vehicle (a 2006 Saturn Relay) through two sets of double doors, and this action placed approximately 40 people in danger,” police said.
Salazar was standing in the lobby when police arrived on the scene. “I made contact with the woman, she spoke back to me in Spanish,” an officer said in the court document. Unable to speak Spanish, the officer asked her to speak in English, “but she refused. A witness who is familiar with her identified her as Theresa Salazar.”
A museum employee, who did not give her name, said she had just ended her shift when “I heard glass shatter. She (the driver) was through the door. She looked very disoriented. She whipped her hair back and looked at us.”
PHIL HOLMES/Sun-Gazette
“Fortunately she didn’t hit any of us,” another employee said.
“Along with a coworker, I went to the museum and we got everyone out safely,” the employee said.
“Had she gone another couple more feet forward, she would have hit people,” another museum employee said.
“We are very grateful, very happy, that no one was hurt here,” David Houseknecht, a spokesman for Little League, said at the scene. He estimated structural damage to be in excess of $25,000.
Although there were Little League decals on the SUV, which is owned by Salazar, the driver “is not a representative of Little League Baseball in any manner,” Houseknecht said.
Soon after she arrived at the police station, Salazar was briefly treated by emergency medical technicians, but she then refused further treatment.
She was arraigned before District Judge Denise Dieter on felony charges of terroristic threats, criminal trespassing, criminal mischief, causing or risking a catastrophe and four misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering.
Salazar refused to answer any of Dieter’s routine questions that are part of the procedure. The judge ordered her to the Lycoming County Prison after denying her bail. “Her actions made her a danger to society,” Dieter said.
However, before she was taken to the prison, Salazar changed her mind and wanted to be treated for leg injuries she suffered in the crash, so an ambulance took her from the police station to UPMC Williamsport, where she was Sunday night.
The driver of this van, Theresa Salazar, was taken to South Williamsport police headquarters. She initially refused treatment for injuries she suffered in the crash, but three hours later, an ambulance took her from there to UPMC Williamsport after she changed her mind and wanted treatment. PHIL HOLMES/Sun-Gazette
Freedom Towing employees remove what is left of damaged front door to museum. PHIL HOLMES/Sun-Gazette
An employee of Freedom Towing, which removed the vehicle, carries a tarp filled with items damaged by the crash. PHIL HOLMES/Sun-Gazette
Shards of shattered glass covered the floor at the front of the museum. PHIL HOLMES/Sun-Gazette
PHIL HOLMES/Sun-Gazette
July 04, 2022 at 12:21PM
https://www.sungazette.com/news/top-news/2022/07/wsport-woman-arrested-after-crashing-into-little-league-museum/
W'sport woman arrested after crashing into Little League Museum - Williamsport Sun-Gazette
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