Charges filed against suspect in Thursday crime spree
NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) (July 8, 2022) – We now know more about the man police say stole four vehicles in Dover and New Philadelphia Thursday morning.
36-year-old Ricky L. Moore Jr of Akron is charged in a criminal complaint filed in New Philadelphia Municipal Court with felonious assault, attempted abduction robbery, and four counts of grand theft of a motor vehicle. Prosecutor Ryan Styer says the crime spree started before 8 am and included the theft of a Mitsubishi Eclipse from a home on West Iron Avenue.
“He went up to the home of [the victim] and several other folks who were living there, kicked out an air conditioner, demanded the keys to the vehicle, and then saw, I think, [the victim] in the vehicle, went to her, threatened that he would forcibly remove her if she did not comply and get out of the car and let him have it.”
Moore reportedly abandoned that vehicle and stole a Chevy Colorado parked behind Domino’s Pizza before attempting to abduct a man and child and ramming their vehicle with the stolen truck. Police say Moore then took a GMC 25-hundred that he found on 6th Street NW in New Phila, abandoning it at Rural King and stealing a delivery truck from Walmart. Styer says it all happened after Moore left Cleveland Clinic Hospital, where he had been taken following an incident in Newcomerstown where he threatened to jump in front of traffic.
“So I think he may have been assessed for involuntary hospitalization, and Cleveland Clinic passed on that, and then according to reports he became belligerent and left the hospital.”
Moore ended up turning himself into Bolivar Police Chief Randy Haugh, who spotted the stolen delivery truck on I-77 and followed it to a gas station off the Faircrest Exit. Moore made his initial court appearance this morning and had his bond set at $25,000. He told the judge he recently lost his job at Amazon, was evicted from his apartment, and was kicked out of his parent’s home in Akron.