DICKSON CITY -- A man involved in a police chase over the weekend in Lackawanna County now faces attempted murder charges.
Joshua Skivington, 26, of Factoryville, faces felonies in two counties following a crime spree that started in Wyoming County and ended in Lackawanna County and put lives at risk.
According to court papers, Skivington with drunk and angry when he called his wife's workplace, M.C. Nailbar in Dickson City. Employees there knew the wife had a protection from abuse order against Skivington so when they refused to take his call, he threatened to kill everyone inside the nail salon.
Jake Huyne is the salon's owner. He says his employees worked out a plan. They called 911 and then calmly got customers out of the building and shut down the shop.
"I'm still kind of thrilled, after hearing all this. My business could have been closed down forever if something happened like this. But, they stopped the whole massacre."
Alyssa Welsh works at Great Clips just down from the nail salon.
“A lady who had just got her hair cut here was over there getting a service done and she came over and said they cleared everyone out of there, said they were closing for the day. So we were like, oh, that's going on?” Welsh said.
Police say Skivington had the tools to create a massacre. After a chase through Dickson City's business district, troopers stopped Skivington's van and arrested him. They found two loaded guns and a bottle of liquor inside.
Skivington led police through a Target parking lot and onto Commerce Drive in Dickson City Saturday afternoon, all during one of the busiest times for shoppers. No one was hurt.
"Everyone worked together really well to try and bring it to an end without any loss of life, without any injuries, and we were very happy that that's the way it ended," said Trooper Connie Devens, Pennsylvania State Police.
"That's pretty crazy for this area. Not really a lot of things happen like that, and it's unusual and thankfully the people did the right thing and they shut down quick and everyone is safe," said Joe Sawyer, who works at Sweetfrog Frozen Yogurt.
"It's crazy. It kind of like fits with the times, though, these days. You don't really know what anyone is going to do," Welsh said.
Troopers say Skivington also threatened and then burglarized his in-law's home in Scott Township. He is charged with attempted murder, terroristic threats, and other charges and is behind bars on $750,000 bail.
