Apr 16, 2018 2 min read

Police were preparing late Monday afternoon to charge a 21-year-old man who’d allegedly threatened a cashier with a knife during a robbery earlier in the day at a gasoline station in South Strabane Township.

Police were called to the BP station on Racetrack Road about 2:30 p.m. Officer Ryan Hoffman of township police said Matthew Wisnoski was apprehended on the railroad tracks near the 2100 block of West Pike Street, which is on the other side of the line with Chartiers Township.

Wisnoski allegedly fled on foot along the tracks following the robbery, said Hoffman. He declined to say how much money Wisnoski managed to steal, but police recovered it.

“He had four rather large – they appear to be kitchen knives” stashed in different places in his clothing, Hoffman said.

No injuries were reported. Hoffman said officers from North Strabane and Chartiers assisted his department.

The gas station is on a busy section of road near on and off ramps to Interstate 79.

Hoffman said Wisnoski – who court records list as having an address in Houston – had previously been on work release at Washington County jail as he served a sentence in another case.

“He failed to report back at the jail,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman expected Wisnoski would be arraigned on criminal charges later in the day and returned there.

Court records show Wisnoski was sentenced last year on a guilty plea to a charge of simple assault Donegal police filed in 2016. Further details weren’t immediately available.

A message seeking more details from Warden Edward Strawn wasn’t immediately returned late Monday afternoon.