Delco lawman charged in off-duty shooting

A sergeant in the Delaware County Sheriff's Office has been arrested for firing a gun at the tires of his car in effort to stop his girlfriend, who was driving away in it.

Gregory Todd Price, 53, of Upper Darby, was arrested Tuesday by Allentown police and charged with recklessly endangering another person and simple assault. He was released after posting $15,000 bail, according to court officials.

A man who answered the phone at Price's home said Price was not taking calls.

According to court documents, Allentown police responded to a report of shots fired at 10:11 p.m. in the 700 block of South Fifth Street. Police interviewed Price, who said he had lent Brittani Ratchford his silver 2011 Dodge Nitro. When she did not return the car by 7 p.m., he traveled to Allentown and found her sitting in the parked car with two other people.

Price went up to the car and demanded that the three "get the [expletive] out of the car," according to the court documents. Ratchford pulled away and "brushed against" Price, who fired two shots from a Ruger LC-9 9mm pistol at the tires, the documents say.

Price, a sergeant, has been at the Sheriff's Department for 24 years and is paid $47,500 a year, said John McCann, department spokesman.

He has not been suspended, McCann said. Sheriff Joe McGinn will make a determination about Price's status pending the outcome of the Allentown investigation and an internal investigation, McCann said.

Price did not use a county vehicle to travel to Allentown, and the gun was not a county-issued weapon, McCann said.