Aerial footage from the Ohio State Highway Patrol shows the final moments of a pursuit involving a stolen semi from Riverside that ended over 100 miles away in Adams County, Indiana last week.
The pursuit involved Riverside police being shot at by the driver of the semi and led to a multi-hour standoff with Indiana State Police, where more shots were fired, investigators said.
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The manager at Dayton Trailer Sales, where the semi was stolen from, said the keys to the semi were left in the cab, because someone had just finished maintenance on it and left the keys, so the owner could pick it up.
The semi was stolen around 12:05 a.m. Feb. 22 from Dayton Trailer Sales in the 1100 block of Brandt Pike.
Shortly after it was stolen, Sturgeon said officers attempted to stop it on Needmore Road. A GPS tracker in the semi helped police find it, Riverside Police Maj. Matthew Sturgeon said.
Sturgeon said investigators are working to find out if the two people involved in the pursuit may have been linked to earlier incidents in Dayton, Harrison Twp. involving commercial vehicles.
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The truck refused to stop for police and got onto I-75 heading north, and while doing so fired at Riverside Police, Sturgeon said.
“The truck eventually is stop sticked by multiple jurisdictions but refuses to stop,” Sturgeon said.
The chase ended up going onto I-70 and then onto State Route 49 into Darke County.
Eventually the semi drove into Indiana, where it eventually crashed into a ditch around 2:20 a.m. at East 400 South and South Salem Road in Adams County, Indiana and about 100 miles from where it was first stolen.
‘We knew from conversations ahead of time that the suspects in the semi were believed to be armed,” said Sgt. Brian Walker with Indiana State Police. “Adams County does not have a tactical team, so they requested the assistance from the Indiana State Police.”
The two people in the truck refused to exit and a SWAT team from Indiana State Police responded to the scene.
Walker said one of the suspects, Michael J. McGee, 26, of Dayton, ended up coming out of the semi after several hours around 5 a.m.
“Our SWAT officers went back up and they were doing a secondary search of the semi. They weren’t sure if they had one or two suspects in the semi,” Walker said. “At that time they were engaged by the second suspect that was in the semi with gunfire.”
Walker said SWAT officers showed “extreme restraint” in not using lethal force and instead using gas deployment in the semi.
The second suspect, Nicholas R Mingus, 29, of Ghent, Kentucky, ended up exiting the cab and surrendered to officers around 5:10 a.m.
The semi ended up catching fire and was destroyed, Walker said.
“The exact reason or source has not been confirmed,” Walker said about the fire.
The manager at Dayton Trailer Sales, where the semi was stolen from, said the keys to the semi were left in the cab, because someone had just finished maintenance on it and left the keys, so the owner could pick it up.
Both Mingus and McGee are booked into the Adams County Jail in Indiana on suspicion of attempted murder, auto theft and resisting law enforcement for the Indiana charges, Walker said.
Sturgeon said the suspects could face charges in Ohio and in federal court.