Christopher Rivera

By Jillian Pikora From Daily Voice

A Dauphin County man who was shot by police while fleeing a Lancaster County robbery scene has been convicted of raping two spa employees at gunpoint, District Attorney Heather Adams announced on Friday, Nov. 7.

Christopher A. Rivera, 38, of Middletown Borough, was found guilty by a Lancaster County jury after a three-day trial on two counts each of robbery, rape by forcible compulsion, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, along with four counts of sexual assault. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before returning a guilty verdict on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025.

Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick, who prosecuted the case, told jurors Rivera “gave two women a choice – you can be raped or you can be murdered.”

“That’s the nightmare [Rivera] put them through,” Haverstick said, explaining that Rivera entered the Calm Spa in the Penn Town Shopping Center, located in the 1200 block of Lancaster Road in Penn Township, at about 8:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024.

Rivera first demanded the women give him money, stealing more than $800 from the business before forcing both victims into a massage room where he raped them while pointing a gun at their heads, prosecutors said.

Surveillance footage from inside the spa showed Rivera pointing the weapon — later determined to be a pellet gun resembling a semi-automatic handgun — and forcing the women into the room, then fleeing out a rear door as Northern Lancaster County Regional Police officers entered the business.

As Rivera fled, he ignored repeated police commands to stop and pulled what appeared to be a firearm from his waistband. One officer fired his service weapon, striking Rivera twice as he tried to jump a guardrail. Officers immediately secured him and rendered aid at the scene, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

District Attorney Adams later ruled the officer’s use of deadly force “completely justified” in September 2024, stating, “During a rapid four to five-second encounter, the officer quickly and accurately perceived the suspect reaching for and producing a weapon while ignoring commands and attempting to evade arrest.”

Lancaster County Detective Brent Shultz filed the charges. Judge Jeffrey Conrad presided over the trial and will sentence Rivera at a later date.