Police: Masked woman attacked traffic flagger with baseball bat

A Verona woman recently attacked a traffic flagger while wearing a Halloween mask, police say.

Northern Regional Police charged Rebecca Metz, 43, with aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, and harassment in connection with the Jan. 5 incident. She was in Saturday at Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh unable to post bail, and has a Feb. 15 preliminary hearing scheduled.

The victim told police she was flagging vehicles at the intersection of Wallace and Village Run roads in Pine Township last week when a woman wearing a black-and-white mask and blue jeans struck her in the left leg and lower back with an aluminum or “metal-looking” bat, causing injury, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Tribune-Review.

The victim also told police there was another alleged incident with Metz in December that involved the victim’s vehicle being vandalized, the criminal complaint said. The victim said she felt the woman wearing the mask was Metz.

Witnesses to the Jan. 5 incident said they chased the suspect up a grass hill toward a former Commonwealth Bank.

The suspect was seen getting into an older, golden Suburban along with another white male wearing the same kind of mask, who had been standing outside the vehicle before they fled the area, the criminal complaint said.

West Deer police found the Suburban and Northern Regional Police took into custody three people, including Metz and the driver. A baseball bat and masks used during the incident were recovered during an inventory search, police said.