Police: Teen charged in Squirrel Hill Tunnel crash had gun, marijuana

A teenager ran out of his shoes when he fled from state troopers after a brief chase and crash in the Squirrel Hill Tunnel on Wednesday, according to the charges against him.

Cash Jones, 18, is charged with carrying a firearm without a license, fleeing police, driving under the influence and traffic violations in connection with the chase and crash that shut down the Parkway East for several hours.

The incident happened around 12:40 p.m., a 911 dispatcher said at the time. The tunnels reopened shortly after 2 p.m.

According to the criminal complaint, a trooper was headed east near the tunnel when he spotted a black Nissan Altima speed past while weaving in and out of traffic. The trooper said the Altima began to get off at the Homestead exit and then veered back into parkway traffic.

The trooper tried to stop the driver, later identified as Jones, who sped into the tunnel, according to the complaint.

Jones crashed while changing lanes and then tried to run from the tunnel. Police noted that he “(ran) out of his shoes,” according to the complaint.

Jones ran out of the tunnel and out of sight of the trooper, who wrote that he heard a gunshot. When the trooper got to the end of the tunnel, he wrote, Jones came around the corner with his hands raised.

Police alleged the smelled marijuana on Jones and found a vape pen in the Altima, according to the complaint. Officers said they found a Glock handgun in the grass outside the tunnel where Jones had run after the crash.

A witness told Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV that Jones must not have seen the car in front of him as he wove among traffic in the tunnel.

“He’s flying down the left and trying to get over into the right, and ran right into the back of a car,” Dillion Webb told the TV station.

Webb’s dashboard camera captured part of melee.

Two people were injured – Jones and a woman who whose vehicle he struck, police said.

Jones remained in the Allegheny County Jail on Thursday, unable to post $5,000 bail. Court records did not list an attorney as of Thursday afternoon. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 2.