Police: High-speed chase on I-75 involving 3 cars & paintball guns ends in pedestrian strike

A chase involving three vehicles on Interstate 75 where paintball guns were fired, ended with a woman getting struck by a vehicle early Wednesday morning.

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Dayton Police Sgt. Chad Knedler said a woman struck by a vehicle at Cornell Drive and Gettysburg Avenue around 2:35 a.m. had been involved in a “rolling disturbance.”

Officers believe the situation began in the parking lot of a local nightclub on Nicholas Road. The woman was reportedly getting into a black Chrysler 300 when someone began firing at the vehicle with a paintball gun.

The woman was a passenger in a vehicle that ended up driving away and started being followed by two other vehicles.

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“Our understanding is they were being chased,” Knedler said, adding that the vehicle the victim was in was also struck on the passenger side. “We’re not sure why, not sure what led up to it. They were trying to get one of the other vehicles to stop.”

Police said they had received reports that the vehicles were going between 80 to 100 mph on northbound I-75 in the area of Edwin C. Moses Boulevard and firing shots.

In a 911 call, a truck driver said he saw three vehicles going “really fast” and shooting at each other.

“They were all shooting at each other pretty hard,” the 911 caller said.

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The private chase exited off onto Salem Avenue and through parts of Dayton, ending up on Gettysburg near Cornell Drive where officers spotted two of the three vehicles and confirmed a woman had been hit.

Reports indicate that when the victim exited the vehicle, reportedly tired of running, the driver of one of the other vehicles, a Jeep, drove forward and pinned her between the Jeep and the Chrysler 300.

Both the Jeep and the other vehicle involved left the scene.

The woman was taken to Miami Valley Hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.

The driver of the vehicle the victim exited from is cooperating, police said.

Police say this is one of a handful of attacks involving people firing paintballs at other people or vehicles.

They made arrests in one of those cases but are still investigating several others, including this one.

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