TOWN OF CORTLANDT – A Selden man is in the Westchester County Jail without bail following a series of events at the Cortlandt Town Center in Cortlandt on Sunday afternoon.

State Police at Cortlandt were called to the Best Buy store at the mall for a report of a potential fraud case and when troopers began to interview Richard Bernhard, 39, he was advised that he had to return to the store to clear up the matter.

At that point, police said Bernhard fled from the trooper on foot and jumped into his waiting getaway car. While fleeing, he struck the trooper with the car and nearly struck pedestrians in the parking lot. He finally crashed into a State Police car that was responding to assist.

Bernard was taken into custody and found in possession of five out-of-state driver’s licenses as well as several thousand dollars in stolen Apple products from several Best Buy stores in the Tri-State area.

He was charged with five counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument, one count each of identity theft, reckless endangerment, attempted aggravated assault on a police officer and criminal mischief, all felonies, as well as several vehicle and traffic violations.

The investigation is continuing and police are looking into Bernhard’s activity related to the forged documents and stolen merchandise with additional charges anticipated.

A passenger in Bernhard’s vehicle was interviewed and released without charges.