May 9, 2018 2 min read

A Wyoming sex offender who is wanted in that state was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital following an early morning crash Wednesday in South Strabane Township.

Police said Elmer Richard Petersen, 40, crashed a vehicle about 2:40 a.m. in the 200 block of Murtland Avenue. When officers arrived at the scene, no one was in the vehicle, which had heavy damage, and there was blood all over the inside of the car.

Police then received reports that a man wearing one shoe and bleeding from the head had entered a nearby Eat’n Park at 320 Oak Spring Road. When police arrived there, patrons told them the man got into the cab of a tanker truck parked outside, according to police reports.

Petersen was spotted hiding on the floor on the driver’s side of the truck, police said. He refused to get out and started revving the engine, “indicating he was trying to flee/harm officers,” the police report said. Police eventually got the truck door open, and as they pulled Peterson out, he tried to hide his wallet and phone in the truck, police said.

Police said there were multiple warrants out of Wyoming for Petersen, who reportedly was staying with a friend in Eighty Four. Petersen was taken to UPMC-Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh for treatment of injuries sustained in the crash.

Petersen is listed on the U.S. Department of Justice National Sex Offender website. He was listed as a sex offender in 2010 for second-degree sexual assault in Gillette, Wyo. He is currently listed as “noncompliant” with the registration requirements.

Police said they spoke with a friend of Petersen’s, whom he allegedly had been drinking with before the crash. Charges are pending further investigation, police said.