MERCER, Pa. – An Ohio man led police on a 20-mile chase in two states and, when officers finally caught up to him in a cornfield, claimed to have a bomb strapped to his body, authorities said.
Authorities said they found no explosives on Yousef Abdel Adhami or in his car after Monday's events.
Adhami, 38, of Youngstown, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of fleeing and eluding police, threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and other crimes.
The district judge who arraigned Adhami had no record of an attorney in the case. No listed phone number could be found for Adhami.
Police in Hubbard Township, Ohio, began pursuing Adhami on Monday night after they said radar showed he was driving 69 mph in a 35 mph zone. Pennsylvania State Police said they joined the chase shortly before 11 p.m. and followed Adhami for about eight miles before he drove into a cornfield.
As police were preparing to arrest him, Adhami claimed to have a bomb on his body that he would detonate, said state police Cpl. Douglas Maxwell. Police took the threat seriously because of the chase and because they felt something rigid beneath Adhami's coat, Maxwell said Tuesday.
"He had something under [his clothes] that they felt was kind of hard when they were putting him under arrest," Maxwell said.
Police called in a police bomb squad from Pittsburgh — nearly 60 miles away — and closed a one-mile stretch of the road. Police found no explosives and took him into custody without incident about two hours later.
Adhami was in the Mercer County Jail on Tuesday, unable to post $75,000 bond.
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