A fender bender involving about five cars occurred on the Schuylkill Expressway at the Conshohocken curve.
A police officer went over to one car with a male and a female inside. According to police, the male provided the officer with false identification. Upon further questioning, the male ran out of the car, jumped over the concrete barrier, and went down an embankment towards the railroad tracks all with the trooper in foot pursuit.
The man then fled across the train tracks and jumped into the Schuylkill River where he began to swim across the river.
That move is feared to be a fatal one.
"There's a good possibility because the trooper saw him jump in the river, go a third of the way out, and never came back up," Cpl. Victor Johnson of the Pennsylvania State Police said.
Police say while they were pursuing the male, the female took off with the car.
Search efforts were called off for the man at 8:00 p.m. after 6 hours of searching.
Police say that the man who ran and jumped into the river was a black, non-hispanic male, in his early 20's, with short brown hair and tattoos on both arms.
The vehicle was a 2000 gold Saturn LS-1 with PA license plate GRB 680.
The vehicle is owned by Byanka Meachum believed to be from Philadelphia or Norristown Area.