New Phila shooting suspect identified; victim ‘stable’
NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) (June 28, 2024) – Police have released more details about the Wednesday night shooting incident at a south side intersection that left a woman critically injured.
In a Friday morning news release, Chief Tessa Pohovey identifies Chance Swaney, 27, of Uhrichsville, as the alleged gunman in the shooting that happened shortly before midnight after the vehicle he was riding in crashed into an embankment and the one carrying the woman and a male driver pulled up next to it. He appeared in New Philadelphia Municipal Court Friday morning before Magistrate Christine Weimer, who set bond at $200,000.
“I have the same concerns that the state has with regard to your release and the safety of the general public.”
Preliminary charges against Swaney include attempted murder, felonious assault, and having weapons while under disability. He’s on parole after serving prison time for a 2020 burglary conviction and is prohibited from carrying a firearm.
“You shouldn’t even have had a firearm in the first place to even be engaged in this circumstance regardless of whether or not you have a severe drug addiction,” said Weimer. “I do agree with the state. I think a substantial bond is appropriate in this matter.”
Tuscarawas County Prosecutor Ryan Styer described Swaney’s criminal history as extensive.
“Lots of thefts, falsification, a weapons charge that was a felony, drug charges that were felonies, grand theft of a motor vehicle, and more drug charges, more druge charges, another theft of a motor vehicle, and then the burglary and drug charges for which he served about four years and just got released.”
Both Styer and police have described the incident that apparently started earlier at a gas station in Dover and involved a car chase on I-77 as drug-related.
Swaney is accused of firing multiple shots from a 22-caliber handgun that authorities recovered from the scene including one that got lodged inside the woman’s lung. She remained hospitalized Friday morning but was said to be in stable condition.
The court will schedule another hearing in the next couple of weeks to determine whether the case will get bound over to Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court for review by a grand jury.