This story has been updated.
ITHACA, N.Y. — A speeding vehicle crashed into a home on the 400 block of Cascadilla and Plain Streets Wednesday night, shortly after 10 p.m. The vehicle combusted several minutes after the collision, resulting in a structure fire which was quelled shortly after igniting.
IPD released an official statement Thursday afternoon, identifying the driver in Wednesday night’s incident as Ismanuel Dilan, a 38-year-old resident of Ithaca.
Dilan was reported to have fled from a domestic incident, where he “assaulted and unlawfully restrained a victim in Ithaca,” according to the statement. The victim was treated at an unnamed hospital in the area for non-life-threatening injuries.
Dilan was arrested on seven charges so far, according to the statement:
- Assault in the second degree (class D felony)
- Unlawfully fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle (third degree class A misdemeanor)
- Assault in the third degree (class A misdemeanor)
- Unlawful imprisonment (class A misdemeanor)
- Aggravated unlicensed operation in the third degree (unclassified misdemeanor)
- Reckless driving (unclassified misdemeanor)
- Numerous traffic violations
Further charges are pending. Dilan is being held in police custody pending arraignment and medical treatment.
Ithaca Police Department (IPD) officers engaged in a high-speed chase with Dilan just prior to the accident after attempting to pull him over for speeding.
Archived recordings from the police scanner show an IPD supervisor ordered officers participating in the chase to “terminate pursuit” immediately before the crash.
Dilan vacated the vehicle directly after it crashed, minutes before the fire, and attempted to flee the scene. IPD officers pursued him, chasing him between the adjacent residences.
Officers subdued him after approximately five minutes, tackling him to the ground and cuffing him before escorting him to the nearby Bangs ambulance transport vehicle parked across the street.
The ambulance remained on-scene for nearly an hour before moving to transport the patient for medical evaluation. The drivers requested assistance from law enforcement shortly into the drive, as Dilan was reportedly combative, breaking the restraints that kept him strapped into the vehicle.
Dilan subsequently exited the ambulance and “ran into the woods” in the town of Newfield, just a few minutes outside the city of Ithaca, according to Tompkins County Sheriff Derek Osborne.
Osborne said his department located the man “rather quickly” after using a drone and a K-9 unit to do so.
Emergency responders from four fire departments including Ithaca Fire Department, Lansing, Cayuga Heights and Newfield, responded to the fire within minutes of the vehicle combusting and began dousing the flames.
The fire was contained shortly thereafter. Those residing in the home, which had been converted into two apartments — one upstairs and one on the ground floor — were home during the incident but evacuated upon the collision and were physically unharmed.
Two residents of a neighboring house said they heard a loud crash around 10 p.m. Responding officers instructed them to evacuate due to the ensuing fire but they were not given further details about the incident.
It’s the second time in two months that a vehicle fleeing from police has wound up hitting a building in Ithaca. In February, a car went through a wall at Fall Creek Elementary School after it was struck by another car that police were pursuing.
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