A traffic stop near South Broadway and the U.S. Route 250 eastbound exit in New Philadelphia exploded into a 26-minute pursuit Tuesday evening, with speeds topping 100 mph before officers boxed in the fleeing driver on Interstate 77 and arrested him. New Philadelphia Police Chief Tessa Pohovey said the chase ended around 7:09 p.m., about one mile south of the Stone Creek exit, after the driver allegedly rammed a police cruiser during the maneuver that finally stopped him.
According to Jordan Miller News, the pursuit began at 6:43 p.m. when an officer tried to pull the driver over and ran the vehicle's license plate, determining that the registered owner had an outstanding warrant. The officer confirmed the driver visually matched that registered owner and identified him as having an active felony warrant through the Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office. Pohovey described what happened the moment the stop was attempted: “as soon as the overheads were activated, he basically just took off straight away, exceeding 100 miles per hour.”
A Chase That Doubled Back on Itself
The driver entered U.S. Route 250 eastbound before the pursuit swept through the Dennison area and near other communities in eastern Tuscarawas County, according to the same report. The route also included U.S. Route 36, with the driver making repeated U-turns on the same stretches of highway. Pohovey said speeds stayed dangerously high for most of the chase, noting that “Most of the time they were well over 100 miles an hour.”
Despite those speeds, the pursuit continued because the roads were largely empty. “Luckily, traffic was pretty light through there,” Pohovey said, crediting that light traffic with allowing officers to continue the chase even as speeds climbed past triple digits. The Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol both joined New Philadelphia police during the pursuit.
Boxed In on Interstate 77
The chase ended when officers used a boxing-in maneuver, surrounding the vehicle to reduce its speed and force it to stop on I-77. During that maneuver, the driver allegedly rammed the New Philadelphia police cruiser intentionally, according to the report. The cruiser sustained damage but remained operational and will require body repairs; no officers were injured.
The driver, identified as 33-year-old William Kislingbury of New Philadelphia, surrendered to authorities without further incident once the vehicle was stopped. Pohovey said Kislingbury was served a warrant for failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer. She added that she did not yet have immediate information about the underlying offense tied to his original felony warrant, and additional potential charges — including driving without an operator's license, operating with expired license plates, and willful or wanton operation of a motor vehicle — have been referred to prosecutors for review.
What Ohio Law Says About Fleeing
Under Ohio Revised Code section 2921.331, drivers are barred from failing to comply with a lawful order from an officer authorized to regulate traffic, and from willfully eluding or fleeing police after a visible or audible signal to stop. Separately, Ohio Revised Code section 4510.12 addresses driving without ever having held a valid license, specifying that the offense becomes an unclassified misdemeanor if a trier of fact finds the offender never held a valid driver's or commercial driver's license, subject to the statute's other conditions. It is not established whether that provision applies in Kislingbury's case.
Pohovey expressed appreciation for the assistance from the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office in bringing the pursuit to an end. A separate pursuit in Gnadenhutten involved a driver who struck a police cruiser while backing out of his driveway, then crashed into trees near Petry Hill Road and Echo Road, fled on foot, and surrendered after his father drove him back to the scene. Gnadenhutten police said they expected to file charges of fleeing and eluding, assault and speeding in that case.
