Car in deadly chase ‘torn in 3 pieces’
Police say fleeing driver never had a license; now faces felony charges.
The car fleeing in the second deadly Moraine police pursuit in three months was traveling more than 80 miles per hour before crashing, sending wreckage flying beyond a Dayton intersection.
“The vehicle was torn in three pieces,” according to Moraine police records of the early Monday morning crash that killed Leonard James Guy Jr. of Dayton. “The engine and front passenger area was in the center of the intersection” of West Stewart and South Broadway streets.
“Doors and a fender were near the southeast corner of the intersection,” the Moraine report states. “The trunk and the back seat were in a vacant field to the southeast intersection.”
The driver — Michael E. Wade, who turned 27 on Monday — was ejected from the Nissan Altima, as was Guy, a back seat passenger, Dayton police records show.
Wade, who Moraine officer Kenneth Lloyd said he sought to pull over for speeding on Dryden Road just past midnight Monday, “has never had a driver’s license” and has faced three related citations, according to Moraine records.
A front-seat passenger — 16-yearold Sarah Michelle Hargis — suffered possible injuries and was taken by emergency personnel, Dayton records show.
Wade was “conscious” after being thrown from the car. He was handcuffed and in custody before he was taken to Miami Valley Hospital, police records show. Hospital officials said they had no record of him as a patient.
Wade faces felony charges of failure to comply and willfully fleeing after the car he was driving was clocked at 56 miles per hour in a 40 mph zone, Moraine police records show. Montgomery County prosecutors said they had no record of any court appearances for Wade.
Moraine officials declined to comment on the issue.
The chase, which authorities said started after Moraine police sought to make a traffic stop near Dryden Road around midnight, was the second involving Moraine police since Sept. 11. On that night, area Realtor Mary Taulbee died after her car collided with a Moraine cruiser driven by Officer Matt Barrie, who was chasing a car theft suspect — Alyssa Irwin-DeBraux of Dayton — on Ohio 741 in Miami Twp.
Barrie and Irwin-DeBraux both reached speeds of more than 80 mph, records show.
Moraine records don’t indicate what speed Lloyd was traveling in the pursuit Monday. But Lloyd indicated it wasn’t until he caught up with the fleeing car — which was going “in excess of 80 mph in a 40 mph zone” — before he saw that it crashed.
Lloyd tracked the Nissan on radar speeding in the 1900 block of Dryden, his report indicates. The car driven by Wade then failed to pull over when Lloyd initiated a traffic stop, running a red light at Edwin C. Moses before going north on Broadway, Moraine records show.
Near the intersection of Hochwalt Avenue, the car went “left of center into the opposite lane of travel before striking the curb and parking lot/ ground located on the northwest corner” of that intersection, the Dayton report states.
The car continued north, driving back onto South Broadway, “crossing back over the center line and losing control,” according to the report.
It struck a Regional Transit Authority pole and a city traffic signal box on the south east corner of this intersection, ejecting both Wade and Guy, the report states. Guy was pronounced dead at the scene.
County Common Pleas Court records indicate five convictions against Wade in November 2016. He was found guilty of trafficking and possessing drugs, as well as tampering with evidence, court records show.