A Montco man was sentenced to decades in state prison for attempting to kill a Plymouth Township officer with his car

A Lower Gwynedd man was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in state prison Thursday for intentionally running over a Plymouth Township police officer, leaving him with life-altering injuries, during a chaotic chase in October 2025.

Dalton Janiczek, 22, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, and fleeing and eluding in a negotiated deal with prosecutors. That designation means Janiczek will receive psychiatric care during his sentence.

The plea came days before Janiczek’s jury trial was set to begin.

After handing down the sentence, Montgomery County Court Judge Wendy Rothstein commended Plymouth Township Officer Jacob Hennessey for his resilience in light of the physical and mental injuries he is still fighting to overcome.

She referenced the 2012 murder of Plymouth Township Officer Brad Fox, who was killed in the line of duty the day before his 35th birthday.

“You leave home every day with one mission, to protect the public,” Rothstein said. “Unfortunately, on that day, you were the ones who were targeted.”

Janiczek apologized to Hennessey and the dozens of other officers who packed Rothstein’s courtroom Thursday, saying he was deeply sorry for his actions that day.

“At the time, I didn’t appreciate I was suffering from serious mental illness,” Janiczek, the son of Center City civil defense attorney Lee Janiczek, said.

Janiczek’s attorney, Tim Woodward, said afterward that his client has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic features. He sharply criticized the systems in place to treat mental illness, saying Janiczek was improperly released from Montgomery County Emergency Services, a private psychiatric hospital, after being involuntarily committed weeks before the encounter with police.

“They let him walk out. That is an utter disgrace, and something needs to be done, because mental illness is real,” Woodward said. “The system is broken.”

On the day of the incident, Janiczek intentionally ran over Hennessey with his Mercedes G63 while fleeing from an attempted traffic stop moments earlier, prosecutors said. The officer was pursuing Janiczek after he threatened to blow up a police station in Chester County, and fled from other officers’ attempts to pull him over, prosecutors said.

In the parking lot of the Doubletree Hotel on Fountain Road, Hennessey ordered Janiczek to get out of the vehicle, and then drew his gun and fired as the SUV continued to barrel toward him.

Janiczek struck him once, pulled away, and then returned to hit the officer an additional three times as Hennessey lay on the ground, attempting to put a tourniquet on his shattered leg.

Janiczek then fled the scene, and intentionally struck two vehicles being driven by other Plymouth Township officers. Both officers were hurt in those collisions, including Sgt. Kyle Wilhelm, who suffered from significant injuries to his knee and later retired from the department.

Hennessey, choking back his emotion, said Thursday he can still smell the coolant that dripped onto him as Janiczek’s SUV was on top of him, and can still hear his own screams for help.

He underwent five surgeries, one as recent as September, to repair fractures to his tibia, femur, fibula, and ribs. Constant nerve damage still plagues him, and he is unable to flex his left foot.

But the worst injury, he said, is his inability to return to a career he had dreamed of since he was in 8th grade.

“The scars may fade, but every day I wake up with a sore knee, I will be reminded of the damage to my family caused by Mr. Janiczek,” he said.

Hennessey’s injuries occurred eight days before his planned wedding to his childhood sweetheart, Meghan. The couple still were able to wed, he said, albeit in a much different ceremony than they imagined: In his in-laws’ backyard, with him in a wheelchair and a tuxedo T-shirt.

“It’s truly a miracle I’m here today,” Hennessey said. “I want everyone to understand that if God didn’t intervene, I surely wouldn’t be here.”