MORAINE — Charges have been approved against a man police say led them on a chase in a stolen U-Haul earlier this week.
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On Thursday, Moraine police identified the driver as William R. Pressel.
Pressel has been arrested four times over the last three and a half years. Now, Moraine police want to find him and make it five.
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As News Center 7 previously reported, Pressel is accused of stealing a large box truck from the U-Haul on Harshman Road.
As shown on News Center 7 at 5:00, the newly-released cruiser camera video showed Moraine police trying to pull over Pressel in the U-Haul on Tuesday. He took off, but they tracked him to Harrison Twp. with a GPS device they stuck onto the truck.
That’s where Moraine police tried pulling him over again, but the video showed him taking off a second time, striking an unmarked Moraine detective’s car.
Pressel then drove on the closed ramp from Wagner Ford Road to Interstate 75, and led the chase down the empty and closed side of the construction zone on southbound I-75.
Moraine police stopped their chase in Dayton, but Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies continued it until the U-Haul drove off the highway in West Carrollton, near the exit for State Route 725.
Three people inside the truck bailed, and police were able to catch the two passengers.
News Center 7 asked Moraine police how this could have ended if Pressel had just pulled over.
“Oh, certainly he wouldn’t have put many, many people in harm’s way. He wouldn’t have had the potential for injuring one of our detectives as he took off from the one point where he did stop and struck the detective’s car,” Sergeant Andrew Parish said in response.
Police said they don’t believe Pressel is a threat to public safety, but he’s facing several charges, including felonious assault, failure to comply, theft of a motor vehicle, vandalism, and breaking and entering.
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