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Philadelphia traffic stop ends in trooper shot, burning bus

PHILADELPHIA - A 17-year-old who was in a car stopped for an expired car registration sticker and traded gunfire with police during a Tuesday morning highway chase that ended with a fiery crash involving a school bus and a trooper with a gunshot wound has been charged.

Giovanni Cotto was charged as an adult with criminal attempt to murder and other charges.Trooper Patrick R. Casey, 31, suffered a "flesh wound" to his shoulder, state police Capt. James Raykovitz said.The teen and a second person who was in the car when it was stopped were in custody as police searched for two more people following the midmorning crash on a downtown highway.When police first stopped the car, they asked the four people inside to exit the vehicle, but one of the suspects jumped back in and took off.Casey, providing backup, pursued the car, at one point getting in front of it to try to force a stop. Cotto instead rammed Casey's cruiser, then pulled alongside him and opened fire.The suspect then crashed into the school bus, causing both vehicles to burst into flames. The bus was empty except for the driver, who escaped unharmed.Cotto again started shooting, while Casey returned fire.Casey was struck once in the shoulder. He was in good condition later in the day.The identity of the second suspect in custody has not been released. Police said the second suspect, a man in his early 20s, had given police a false name when the teen took off in the car.Video posted on social media showed law enforcement officers running down the closed section of I-676 and apprehending one man.A newspaper reporter on her way to an assignment was on the highway when she saw the event unfold.Kathy Lauer-Williams of The Morning Call, said she saw a police cruiser try to box in the getaway car, but the car then swerved into the cruiser, sending debris flying.The busy stretch of road was closed in both directions between Interstate 76 and Interstate 95, but reopened later in the day.

Investigators and firefighters work the scene of a fire and shooting Tuesday in Philadelphia. A Pennsylvania state police trooper was shot in the shoulder after a fiery crash along Interstate 676. AP PHOTOS/MATT ROURKE