Each Monday, our digital team takes a look at last week’s top stories on LancasterOnline.
We look at news, sports, business, life, culture and local history.
Here are the most-read stories between Monday, March 3, and Sunday, March 9.
1. Aircraft crashes at Brethren Village in Manheim Township
Fire and medical crews were on the scene of a plane crash off of Airport Road at Brethren Village in Manheim Township.
Shortly after 3:15 p.m. Sunday, Lancaster County-Wide Communications dispatchers reported an aircraft had crashed near a parking lot of Brethren Village. Dispatchers reported that a small airplane as well as several cars had caught fire.
Officials reported at a press conference that a total of five people, all of whom were on the plane which had taken off from Lancaster Airport, were injured in the incident. They were transported by local EMS agencies to local hospitals for treatment. No one on the ground sustained any injuries.
2. Lancaster county groups call for police officers to be terminated after video shows downtown arrest
Multiple Lancaster county community groups have signed an open letter calling for the termination of several Lancaster city police officers after a video circulated on social media showing officers arresting three people in downtown Lancaster.
The video does not show the circumstances that led up to the events of the arrest.
The video, which was shared last Friday evening on Facebook, appears to show a Lancaster city police officer kneeling on the back of a person who is screaming for help as he lies on his stomach on the sidewalk.
Another officer repeatedly tells the person filming to back away from the scene and says if they don’t, “you’re going to go in cuffs.”
A Facebook account where the video was posted says the incident occurred on Sunday, March 2, near North Duke and Chestnut streets in Lancaster city.
3. Columbia, Mount Joy, Rapho and West Hempfield sue MESA over ambulance service bills
Four municipalities are taking the Municipal Emergency Services Authority of Lancaster County to court in an effort to get it to stop billing them when it provides emergency medical services to their residents.
Columbia and Mount Joy boroughs and Rapho and West Hempfield townships filed the action Thursday in Lancaster County Court.
The four municipalities do not contract with Elizabethtown-based MESA to provide EMS services, however under the concept of mutual aid, MESA responds when their EMS provider — Penn State Health Life Lion — is unavailable, and vice versa.
In their complaint, the four municipalities want a judge to tell MESA that it has no legal authority to bill them for services and that they do not have to pay bills that have been sent to them, which total $117,300.
4. Recent tragedy raises new question about Amish scooter safety [Lancaster Watchdog]
East of Intercourse in Salisbury Township, Route 340 stretches across a sea of farms, many of them owned by Amish families.
The roadway, known locally as the Old Philadelphia Pike, serves as a central thoroughfare for Amish people traveling in buggies and on foot.
Many Amish also travel the road on foot-powered, two-wheeled push scooters, which are slower than bicycles — local Amish churches object to the speed of bikes — but faster than walking.
According to federal law, scooter riders are pedestrians, but in terms of practical safety, they fall somewhere between a pedestrian and a vehicle, which creates a unique set of risks for riders.
A few weeks ago in the 5800 block of Old Philadelphia Pike, just east of White Horse, a vehicle struck and killed Emmanuel Blank, 31, who was riding a single scooter with his two young sons, ages 6 and 15 months, less than a quarter mile from their home. The children were critically injured and their conditions at this point are unknown.
5. Child unintentionally stabbed Lancaster man, no charges to be filed in his death: DA’s office
No charges will be filed in the fatal stabbing of a Lancaster man because the juvenile who stabbed him did so unintentionally, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office.
Matthew Hill, 40, died Jan. 24 in a residence on the first block of West Farnum Street.
According to the DA’s findings, Hill and a woman who lived at the residence had been out drinking at a bar, and when they returned around 2:23 a.m., Hill went to sleep on the couch in the living room.
Sometime after 3 a.m., two juveniles who lived at the house began playing pranks on Hill, including dumping water on him several times.
“Both juveniles possessed kitchen knives as they performed the pranks. After several incidents of this, Hill fully awoke and became upset” and began to slam the head of the older of the two juveniles against the wall and punch them in the back, according to the DA’s office.
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