CHILLICOTHE, OH — A wild afternoon shooting on East Water Street ended in the arrest of a local driver after police used neighborhood surveillance footage and automated license plate readers to track down the suspect’s vehicle.
Chillicothe police officers responded to the area of 591 East Water Street shortly after 5:15 p.m. on Monday, September 14, 2026, following multiple reports of a rolling gunfight between two moving vehicles.
A witness told police he heard two gunshots in front of his home before spotting a white sedan chasing a black sedan. According to the witness, an individual was leaning out the window of the white vehicle firing a handgun while chasing the other car westbound on East Water Street.
Surveillance footage collected from nearby residences on North Brownell and North Rose streets provided critical evidence for investigators. Video timestamped around 5:18 p.m. showed a white sedan—distinguished by black rims and a white sticker on the rear windshield—firing 6 to 7 rounds directly from the driver’s window. Police noted the shooting occurred in a high-density area with several other motorists present, people on the sidewalks, and young children riding bicycles just seconds before the shots rang out.
At the scene, Officer Lance Canterbury located three spent 9mm shell casings scattered in the roadway. Using vehicle details from the security video, Officer Canterbury searched the city’s Flock Safety camera network and identified a matching white Kia Optima bearing Ohio license plate KGT5696, which had entered the area shortly before the shooting.
A broadcast alert was issued to area law enforcement, and Officer Joseph Gay located the suspect vehicle a short time later traveling southbound on Watt Street.
Officer Gay initiated a felony traffic stop, ordering the two occupants to stick their hands out the windows before detaining them. While walking to a patrol cruiser, the driver, identified as William Scaggs, alerted officers that a firearm was hidden underneath his seat.
A search of the Kia yielded a tan Glock 19X 9mm handgun loaded with a 17-round magazine, a digital scale with white residue, and eight additional loose 9mm rounds on the passenger side.
During questioning, Scaggs denied being involved in a shooting, claiming he had just purchased the handgun an hour earlier from an unnamed individual from Columbus. However, police noted Scaggs struggled to recall his timeline of events for the day and falsely claimed he had not been on East Water Street.
The passenger, Talon Price, told officers he owned the Kia but had loaned it to Scaggs for most of the day, only getting back into the car roughly 20 minutes prior to the traffic stop to run an errand to a dollar store. Price’s account was corroborated by his wife, and he was released from the scene without charges.
Scaggs was arrested and transported to the Ross County Jail, where he was booked on charges of discharging a firearm on or near a prohibited area. The vehicle was towed to an impound lot, and the seized firearm, shell casings, and ammunition were submitted to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) for ballistics testing.
