An Upper Darby Highway Patrol officer suffered an ankle injury after being struck by a fleeing dirt bike rider near Montrose Avenue and Ivy Court on September 1, and police say the man now charged in the case was free on bail from a prior drug and assault arrest in Haverford Township at the time. Tynief J. McDaniel, 22, of the 5100 block of Race Street in Philadelphia, was taken into custody the next day at a home on Bywood Avenue and now faces aggravated assault and fleeing charges that could send him to state prison for years.
According to the Delco Times, Highway Patrol Division officers first spotted a male riding a purple dirt bike without a license plate on Harwood Avenue on September 1. Officers attempted to stop the bike on the 8900 block of West Chester Pike, and the rider initially stopped before driving off again, the paper reports. A highway patrol officer then attempted to intercept the bike near Montrose Avenue and Ivy Court, where the dirt bike struck the officer, leaving him with an ankle injury that required hospital treatment.
Officers pursued the fleeing rider and discharged three tasers into him near Montrose and Delaware avenues before he managed to get away, per the same account. During the chase, an officer located an iPhone that had fallen from the cyclist, and police body-camera video reportedly matched the rider's description: a Black man with dreadlocks, sunglasses and a white t-shirt.
Phone Records Led Investigators to a Bywood Avenue Home
Detective Kevin Gamber filed a search warrant for the phone number tied to the recovered iPhone, which the Delco Times reports had been used to call 911 on July 29 to request a medical unit to the 1400 block of Bywood Avenue. That call had reportedly been placed by a Tonief McDaniel. A subsequent database search turned up a Tynief McDaniel with a prior arrest in Haverford Township on drug, harassment and assault charges, and investigators say his arrest photo from that case matched the dirt biker's description.
On September 2, police officers located an identical purple dirt bike at the Bywood Avenue home and took McDaniel into custody there. He was formally charged with aggravated assault, fleeing police, simple assault, failure to stop and render aid, operating an unregistered vehicle without insurance, and related traffic violations, according to the report.
Bond Status From Haverford Case Adds to Legal Exposure
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said McDaniel struck a police officer while operating a motorcycle while out on bail, referring to a $7,500 third-person surety bond stemming from the Haverford arrest. That earlier case has a hearing scheduled for September 16, raising the question of whether prosecutors will seek to revoke that bond given the new allegations.
In remarks quoted by the Delco Times, Bernhardt said, “Running from police, fighting with an officer and trying to hurt an officer will only make the situation worse,” adding that assaults on officers would not be tolerated. Bernhardt has previously spoken to the Delco Times about other Upper Darby cases, including a bystander's chase of a robbery suspect near H-Mart and an alleged assault case involving a woman who barricaded her bedroom.
McDaniel was arraigned before District Judge Wendy B. Roberts, who set bail at 10 percent of $50,000. He was unable to post that bail and was taken to the Delaware County prison, which is George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton — the 1,883-bed facility that returned to full public management from private contractor GEO Group in April 2022, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 17 before District Judge Benjamin Johns, whose Magisterial District Court 32-1-34 sits less than three miles from the Philadelphia border, per Fienman Defense LLC.
Felony Exposure Under Pennsylvania Law
Striking a police officer performing official duties is elevated to a second-degree felony under Pennsylvania law regardless of whether the injury is classified as serious bodily harm, according to LegalClarity.org, which notes the charge carries up to 10 years in state prison and fines as high as $25,000. Separately, willfully fleeing police in a way that endangers officers or the public can elevate a motor vehicle flight charge to a third-degree felony carrying up to seven years in prison, and a conviction also triggers an automatic 12-month driver's license suspension, according to Quinlan Law.
The Upper Darby Police Department reestablished its specialized Highway Patrol Unit in November 2022, staffing it with eight officers dedicated to traffic enforcement and anti-crime operations along the township's major roads, according to the Upper Darby Police Department. The department employs roughly 133 sworn officers who handle more than 60,000 service calls annually across the township's 7.62 square miles. Upper Darby is Pennsylvania's sixth-most populous municipality, with about 85,400 residents living across dense commercial and transit corridors that border West Philadelphia. According to Upper Darby Township’s Comprehensive Plan, the township is Delaware County’s largest municipality, with a population of 85,000, and is Pennsylvania’s sixth-largest municipality. The Upper Darby Police Department’s 2025 annual report says its Traffic Unit is responsible for enforcing all traffic violations within the township.
Part of a Broader Regional Enforcement Push
Off-road dirt bikes cannot legally be operated on public roads in Pennsylvania unless they are modified with safety equipment such as headlights and turn signals, registered with PennDOT, and covered by state-mandated liability insurance, according to Reiff Law Firm. State lawmakers expanded municipal police authority under Senate Bill 1183 to allow departments to seize, confiscate, sell or destroy illegal dirt bikes and ATVs operated on public highways and sidewalks, a tool local agencies across Southeastern Pennsylvania have increasingly relied on to combat unauthorized dirt bike groups.
The stakes behind that enforcement push are significant: police testimony before the Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee cited 41 ATV crashes — including three fatalities — and seven fatal dirt bike crashes in the Philadelphia metro area over a single year, tied in part to the fact that non-street-legal off-road vehicles typically lack headlights and mirrors. The danger cuts both ways for law enforcement, too. Just days earlier, Hoodline reported that a Hunting Park motorcyclist ran over an officer's foot before fleeing on a sidewalk, and in May, a Baltimore dirt bike rider was arrested after mounting a sidewalk and assaulting two officers who tried to seize his vehicle.
