FOSTER TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Court paperwork lays out what investigators with the Pennsylvania Game Commission say happened on land just outside Hazleton.
Around 6 p.m. on Saturday, two state game wardens responded to the end of Hazle Brook Road for a report of an illegally taken deer.
When they arrived, the game wardens heard ATVs in the area and separated to find them. State Game Warden Kenneth Pfeil was in between two coal piles when two ATVs headed in his direction. Pfeil, in full uniform, tried to stop the drivers of both ATVs who investigators say were Kenneth Spence Jr. and his son Kenneth Spence III.
According to court papers, Kenneth Spence Jr.'s son told investigators he and his father thought the State Game Warden trying to stop them was a hunter.
The two did not stop, and the ATV operated by Kenneth Spence Jr. hit Game Warden Pfeil in the knee, knocked him to the ground, and drove off.
Through interviews with Spence's son, who lives in Weatherly, and others riding ATVs in the area, the Game Commission determined Spence had returned to his home in New Jersey. Officials from the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Commission tried to contact Spence at his home but were unsuccessful.