Community picking up the pieces after semi truck pursuit

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (WSAZ) - In total darkness, underneath the sirens, a community laid wide awake trying to figure out what the loud thuds they kept hearing were.

“It sounded like an airplane crash or something like that,” Shad Brickey said.

Neighbors like Brickey who live along Charles Street in Portsmouth waited patiently for the sun to rise Sunday-- only to discover the wreckage.

“It was real bad,” Brickey said.

Portsmouth Police say those loud thuds neighbors heard overnight were from a stolen semi truck crashing into at least fifteen cars during a pursuit.

“This is the kind of stuff you see on TV. You don’t see this in real life,” Donna Swords said.

Police were initially dispatched to the 600 block of Broadway Street around 1:15 Sunday morning after receiving calls of a semi truck striking a pole.

Once they arrived, they said the driver, Maxwell Wiley, who is from Argillite, Kentucky, sped off, leading officers on a pursuit throughout the city.

“You could hear the gears, they were screaming,” Ladonna Hodge said.

The chase has left extensive damage to stop signs, fire hydrants, and multiple parked cars.

After over an hour, the pursuit ended when a slow moving train hit the semi, causing it to stop.

That’s when police say Wiley got out of the semi and climbed on top of the train where officers surrounded him. Officers started tasing him after they say he resisted arrest.

Once released from the hospital, Wiley faces charges including breaking and entering, grand theft auto, failure to comply with the order of a police officer, railroad vandalism, and other counts of vandalism.

This incident remains under investigation.

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