PSP Fulton Street shooting

Pennsylvania State Police have the area taped off after one of their own Troopers was shot serving a warrant in a garage area along East Fulton Street in Lancaster on Wednesday July 24, 2024.

 CHRIS KNIGHT | Staff Photographer

Each Monday, our digital team takes a look at last week’s top stories on LancasterOnline.

We look at news, sports, business, life, culture and local history.

Here are the most-read stories between Monday, July 22, and Sunday, July 28.

1. Former Conestoga Valley swimming star, now a doctor, charged with distributing child pornography

A pediatric anesthesiologist from Lancaster County has been charged with possessing and distributing child pornography as part of an ongoing federal investigation into child pornography sharing.

Christopher Sheerer, 35, was charged July 19, a day after agents with the Department of Homeland Security searched his Boston apartment and interviewed him after he returned to his apartment from a 12-hour shift at Boston Children’s Hospital.

According to charging documents, Homeland Security identified Sheerer as a participant in sharing child pornography over an unidentified sharing platform in May while he was at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. On July 1, he started a pediatric cardiac anesthesiology fellowship at Harvard Medical School through Boston Children’s Hospital.

Sheerer graduated from Conestoga Valley High School, where he was a state champion swimmer, in 2007, going onto compete for the men's swimming team at Albright College. He received his medical degree from Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2015.

2. Pa. state police arrest man involved in Wednesday shooting that wounded a trooper

Pennsylvania State Police arrested a man with ties to York and Lancaster counties last Wednesday after they say he fired a pistol seven times from inside a Lancaster storage unit where he was holed up, wounding a state trooper.

Police charged Alfredo Maldonado-Gonzalez, 41, with the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer after a member of the state police Special Emergency Response Team was hit by a bullet in his upper right bicep while serving a search warrant at a set of storage units at 629 E. Fulton St.

Investigators had connected Maldonado-Gonzalez — whose home addresses are listed in the 500 block of East Maple Street, Dallastown, and the 700 block of North Queen Street, Lancaster — with a series of robberies around Lancaster County.

Their investigation took them to three locked storage units, Nos. 10, 11 and 12, Wednesday morning. As officers were using tools to access the units, gunshots rang out and a member of the team, Cpl. John J. Pokorny, said he was struck by a bullet, according to a police affidavit. SERT team members began treating him at the scene, and he was taken to Lancaster General Hospital for further care for a non-life-threatening injury.

3. In a reversal, Frisco's announces plans to reopen Lancaster city restaurant

The abrupt closure two weeks ago of Frisco’s four Lancaster County locations left many dedicated fans upset over the loss of the restaurant that featured Peruvian-style chicken that is marinated and then roasted in a charcoal-fired rotisserie.

Encouraged by the flood of supportive messages they received, the owners of Frisco’s have now partially reversed course, announcing plans Thursday to reopen their original Lancaster city location soon but with no specific date set.

“I’m absolutely certain that Frisco’s can continue,” co-owner and restaurant namesake Francisco “Frisco” Gomez De La Torre told LNP | LancasterOnline. “Only a blind person could not see what we are seeing and that’s part of the reason why we have people supporting us.”

Gomez De La Torree, who owns Frisco’s with Josh Rinier, said the 454 New Holland Ave. location would reopen “very soon.” He noted that that restaurants’ brisk business after its fall 2020 opening is what prompted Frisco’s to subsequently expand with locations near Lititz and Mount Joy as well as a Willow Street restaurant that debuted in October.

4. Philanthropist, longtime F&M supporter Ann B. Barshinger dies at 100

Philanthropist Ann B. Barshinger, known for multimillion-dollar donations to several landmark projects and initiatives in Lancaster County, including the cancer center that bears her name, died of natural causes Sunday morning at 100 years old.

Barshinger, who grew up on a farm near Glen Rock in York County, gave millions of dollars to projects in arts, theater, medicine and education. Born in September 1923, Barshinger lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam Conflict, 9/11, and 17 U.S. presidencies. She moved to Lancaster County in 2000 and lived at Willow Valley Communities in West Lampeter Township, where she spent her final days.

Click here for a full tribute to Barshinger.

5. Pa. Game Commission planning to expand gamelands in northern Lancaster County

The Pennsylvania Game Commission is preparing to boost its land holdings in northern Lancaster County, adding public hunting ground in an area where such lands see heavy use by hunters and nonhunters alike.

At their July 12 meeting, the agency’s board of commissioners announced that “Natural Lands Trust” – now called just Natural Lands – has offered to purchase for the Game Commission 139.44 acres straddling the Lancaster-Lebanon county line to add to the agency’s Game Lands system.

According to the OnX mapping system, the property is currently owned by Byler Management Inc. and sits in Elizabeth Township, Lancaster County, and Heidelberg Township, Lebanon County.

The address listed for the property owner is the same as Iron Valley Golf Club, which is owned by Byler Holdings.

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