David Rinehart

Police have captured a Shrewsbury Township man who allegedly had a "hit list" of people he planned to kill, and who police believed to be armed and extremely dangerous.

David E. Rinehart suffers from mental illness, police confirmed.

Rinehart, 68, of 15341 Whitcraft Lane, was arrested about 1:10 p.m. Wednesday at a Chanceford Township auction house, according to Southern Regional Police Sgt. Darryl Smuck.

Rinehart's hit list included a magisterial district judge, three local attorneys and others, Smuck said.

According to charging documents, Rinehart walked into Smith Bros. Garage, 238 N. Main St. in Shrewsbury, about 9:45 a.m. Wednesday and said he was going to start shooting people with an AK-47 assault rifle.

Rinehart claimed he had a list of people he wanted to kill, in the order he wanted to do it, documents state.

After being notified, police went to Rinehart's mobile home, but he wasn't there.

Inside the trailer, officers found the purported hit list and a number of handwritten notes, some threatening to cut people's heads off with swords, documents state.

'Kill everybody': The notes included "get AK-47, Kill as many as can, kill everybody" and "cut heads off 4 more women" and "I been hasseled for 5 or 6 months -- time for payback ... kill all but 6 pallbearers," according to documents.

The interior of Rinehart's trailer was destroyed, Smuck said, and officers seized several swords and a handgun from the home.

Officers contacted Rinehart's family and friends, asking for the names of places he frequented, according to Smuck. One of those places was Bradley K. Smith's auction house in Chanceford Township.

"We contacted the business, and they said Mr. Rinehart was there," Smuck said.

Not armed: State police found Rinehart there and arrested him.

He was not armed at the time of his arrest and no weapons were found in his pickup truck, which he'd driven to the auction house, Smuck said.

Rinehart was arraigned on one count of making terroristic threats, and his bail was set at $60,000, court records state.

Despite the fact there's an active mental-health warrant for his arrest, he was taken to county prison, Smuck said, because the prison has a mental-health unit.

The warrant remains active for 30 days, so if Rinehart posts bail in the next month he will immediately be taken to a local hospital, Smuck said.

Friend on list: Named in Rinehart's hit list was Baxter Myers of New Freedom, according to charging documents. Myers said he's known Rinehart since second grade.

"I would say he was my best friend all my life," Myers said, adding they helped each other out and even traveled together.

According to Myers, Rinehart has struggled recently with mental-health issues, but for long periods of his life was simply a regular person.

"He's an all-around nice guy. I think everybody would tell you that," he said.

As far as being on the purported hit list, Myers was unfazed.

Plea for help? "I never felt threatened," he said. "Possibly it was a plea for help."

Myers said he intends to stand by Rinehart.

"I'm still his friend," he said. "It's just a sad situation."

Also on the hit list were District Judge Jeff Joy; attorney Bernard Ilkhanoff, who recently represented Rinehart; Ilkhanoff's wife and law partner, Paula Silverstein; attorney D. Reed Anderson; Myers' girlfriend; and two others, charging documents state.

Messages left for Ilkhanoff, Silverstein and Anderson were not returned.

Road-rage case: Rinehart made news in April for an alleged road-rage incident.

According to police, Rinehart was involved in a minor crash with another vehicle in the 600 block of South Main Street in Shrewsbury on April 14, then got out of his car and started a fight with the other driver.

During the fight, Rinehart choked the man until he nearly lost consciousness, according to police.

Rinehart was taken to York Hospital for a mental-health evaluation and charged with simple assault and harassment, police said.

The simple assault charge was withdrawn in May, when Rinehart pleaded guilty to summary harassment, according to court records.

Rinehart told The York Dispatch he didn't assault the other driver.

-- Liz Evans Scolforo can also be reached at levans@yorkdispatch.com.