POLICE CHASE COVERAGE: Stolen tow truck plows through police and civilian cars in Maryland

oh okay, in progress right now, you're looking at it, we're looking at it at the same time and they told us this was like an emergency response or some kind of tow on the front of one of those roadside assistance

truck

s, uh, and You can see they're just going through this neighborhood. It's unclear why this

chase

started, but at this point you can see several

police

officers following that

truck

at this time. I'm not sure what

police

department it is originally. I heard from the Prince George's County Police, you can see one that is trying to block him to try to keep him from leaving and you also have the Maryland State Police officers and look, you have all these other people in the way also that they're trying to get out of the way yeah so let's see obviously we're trying to see how this is going to play out how it's going to end uh they have been we know at all how long this Hunt has been going on and can we? know where this is Folks, okay, this has been going on for 15 minutes, yeah, about 15 minutes or so, and you just know when we deal with

chase

s like this, we always talk, we have that debate about whether or not it's safe to do it. .

In this case, here they are navigating the streets of this neighborhood. A moment ago we saw other

cars

on the road. You have police blocking some of those entrances to other areas of this neighborhood to make sure people can stay safe. They're out of the way Lorenzo and Les, I'm Adam Longo at The Newsroom. We've been watching this unfold for the last 20 minutes. Sorry to interrupt, but this was not a chase involving Maryland State Police or Prince George's County Police until about 10. A few minutes ago all we know is that this is an M Emergency Response Vehicle that was circulating.

Our Chopper was following it because we received a tip that the police were looking for this vehicle. They attacked him in the last 10 minutes and this. The vehicle before going into the air had made some evasive maneuvers through some parking lots that it drew, drove through a grass field hitting some power lines in an attempt to evade and escape the officers who were pursuing it, so it did not We know exactly how this started. This vehicle has been on Route 29, it's been on 95 southbound, it got off at Powder Mill and you can see this pursuit is now continuing.

It started in Calverton. We are now in the area around Beltsville in the Green Belt, so I can't. I'm telling you exactly where this is right now, but you can see that the Maryland State Police are pursuing this vehicle, which has not yet hit any police vehicles or any other vehicles. You can see the Maryland State Police moving here, but they haven't done so yet. able to get in front of this vehicle and lock it in, yeah, and what also makes it difficult, I guess, is because you're talking about a roadside assistance truck with a flashing light, so a lot of those people are trying to get out as well. of the road too, yes, and it's hard to even know how fast this vehicle is going, but you can clearly see that the drivers who are along this stretch of road, wherever this driver is, know that something is happening.

Enough to get you off track, yeah. so I'm guessing at this point you're also talking about a manhunt involving multiple jurisdictions, so they're probably calling some of the other police departments in our area in case this moves out of the region as well, so yes we know. that the Maryland State Police is the lead agency here that has initiated this pursuit and that the Prince George's County police, because there are in the county that have been asked to assist, so there are several officers that converge in and around this. area in an attempt to stop this vehicle, but so far they have been unsuccessful and even attempted to get in front of this vehicle when we were watching it just a few minutes ago, it looked like it was in the parking lot of an office building. like the officers could have boxed him in, but that's when this vehicle pulled out of the parking lot and into this grass field to escape.

Hopefully we can get that video and turn it around in the next few minutes. but it seems like every time it looks like the police might be in a position to immobilize this vehicle or stop it, whoever is driving this vehicle can get away, you know, it could be that the people on the road may not realize what it's about. of a chase because it's an emergency response vehicle, it has lights on, it's moving at the same pace as the other police

cars

that are clearly trying to catch up to it, it looks like a Maryland State Police vehicle. behind him but if you're on the road you might not realize it's a chase you know you might think it's just someone trying to get somewhere of course you see this maneuver here they tried it before and the emergency driver.

The vehicle was able to outmaneuver the trucks that were trying to immobilize them. It seems they succeeded. Maybe this will work, but we're not sure. It appears the driver is still trying to maneuver around the side of the road. This is clearly intentional, yes, and this is the most aggressive. The first impact we've seen on another vehicle so far and okay, at this point you have to wonder how much longer this can last. You're driving through part of the terrain here. Okay, so we get back on the road and we can say here that this roadside assistance truck was

stolen

, so we don't know where it was

stolen

from or where the initial entry point was or if the person who called for help is the one. which is now in this vehicle, but we know it started in Calton Maryland and this has been happening and moving throughout the area, as Adam said.

I95 Route 29 in the Beltsville area and cars are trying to move out of the way. If you're just joining us now, we're following what appears to be a police chase in Maryland, this is an emergency vehicle that was supposed to be sent to help someone on the side of the road, somehow it makes it, it they steal It's stolen and someone is behind the wheel now trying to escape multiple police jurisdictions, yeah, and I'm also trying to read the side of this truck. I can't make out whether or not it's saying that the Maryland Department of Transportation is somehow okay with it.

It's a state truck that was brought here, an emergency patrol car on the side, so this person, whoever it is, drives it. . I guess some of these officers that have been able to follow him get on the side and have also identified the person that they have been able to take a look at to understand who the person is in the driver's seat uh just navigating through the traffic and it's 611 on a Friday afternoon at rush hour traffic people trying to get home and there's quite a bit of activity that people Here I didn't anticipate that this is a police chase.

What you're seeing right here is that yellow truck. There is an emergency response vehicle right there. It was stolen from a location and this police chase began in Calverton, Maryland. It involves multiple jurisdictions trying to stop the driver. who has been able to overcome them several times, first we saw him cornered in an area where he could maneuver, then they tried to corner him in another place, he seemed to go to rough terrain and kept going, as did the police. he was still trying to catch up to him and it looked like very close behind him was a Maryland state trooper, yes, and you also have Prince George's County police officers and we've talked about this a lot before when you made the decision to pursue a suspect in situations like this because we are also talking about rush hour, on a Friday, many people return home, so when is it safe to do so?

In this case, police from multiple jurisdictions felt they had to go after him. the person in this truck to stop them we're approaching a gas station right now uh let's see what's going to happen here it looks like he's using this as a way to turn around and go back in the opposite direction boy. It is clear that whoever is driving this vehicle is on the right, they are just pushing it out of the way. Wow, this is the first time we've seen something like this in this chase, so the Montgomery County Cruiser isn't involved either. the suspect and now it's a matter of you seeing how aggressive the suspect is becoming with the vehicle, so law enforcement does it in an attempt to bring this closer to that aggression and try to apprehend this person, yeah, and you know, We've seen this driver okay so now we're pushing other cars, yes initially it was just about police and getting off the road and gently weaving through traffic but now you see this has taken an aggressive turn and this is when it gets dangerous, yes this is when it gets dangerous, yes it's clearly very unpredictable, the officers are trying to catch up, the cars are trying to move, but those who don't realize it's a chase can watch this emergency vehicle and think.

They have a moment to get over it and clearly what we've seen is that they don't do one thing that is also a problem here. This is a big, heavy truck. You saw him, he just pushed that Maryland State Police van to the side with ease. This would be a very difficult vehicle to fight compared to some of the other vehicles we might see. You know from Internet videos that police officers can perform pit maneuvers and eliminate this is a much heavier vehicle. It's going to be more difficult. to stop this vehicle and Adam, you were saying this started, so before we bring this to you, you live people at home, you were watching this for about 20 minutes, so this has been going on for quite some time, it's coming to two others. the cars are now literally moving oh wow yeah this has gotten very very serious two cars there at the intersection have been wrecked they just passed by Columbia Road okay another car and another car these cars are trying out of the way, they seem to sense that something something is happening here and Adam, how long has it been approximately 20 minutes since that point?

Yeah, we're at the 20 or 25 minute mark now, so when I first tuned into this, it was discussed in the newsroom and we've been able to confirm exactly what precipitated this, but this vehicle was alone for some time. without any police car behind, our Chopper was following because we found out that something had happened here and the police were looking for this. The vehicle was stopping at its stop signs, it was obeying the rules of the road by staying in the lanes and as the officers have engaged, the suspect has become increasingly erratic in trying to evade authorities, so, Somehow, you brought this. above, we don't see this every day here so you know there are conversations about when police chases can actually start and when you look at Maryland, officers are apparently authorized to pursue if it appears that someone who has been given a appropriate signal to stop, who has been told to stop by a law enforcement officer does that and this is clearly not happening, yeah, so he went to this neighborhood.

Hood, it looks like he tried to turn around and we have all these officers lined up here. They kind of stayed out of his way he just walked past those two Maryland State Police unless they didn't anticipate he was coming in that direction this seems to be someone in Adam you've been watching this for longer than we are, but this person clearly seems to know a little bit of the terrain here, they know where they're going, it would seem that way from all the driving we've seen through office parks and some of the main roads and now all these secondary roads. roads and the fact that he was able to evade Escape by going to a parking lot and then entering a dead end and being able to get out is a little disconcerting, but you have to imagine that the officers have their rules of Engagement and what they are going to do.

I mean, this looks like a residential area. So is this the place you want to detain someone? I mean, we haven't heard anything about the suspect being armed, but if that's the case. The thing is, there's a place where you want to try to stop this chase in a residential area, so look like we're at the end of our once again, we're doing a U-turn and you've got some of those officers, those from You guys watching at home have noticed that they are blocking some of those streets, presumably in this case they are trying to keep people out of the way of this driver, so they are working on not only catching this person, this driver, but you also try to make sure people are safe.

Yeah, we've seen several different scenes, so you have this roadside attendant truck reported stolen, still at the stop for a moment.It's hit at least five to six vehicles here, from what we could count, so with that wreckage left behind from what happened, police have to respond to those areas and make sure they're okay. Meanwhile, they're trying to get this driver to stop the vehicle which, as you mentioned, happened, but get this driver out of there so he can, you know, get rid of the danger that's on the road and then, okay, you see. how this develops and what this person is like. driving through the streets of this area who knows what's inside the truck that will be the other problem when you get close how close can you get so yeah we see this truck stopped at this point and you wonder why officers can't do it. they've already moved in uh they're trying to assess the threat at this point the video you're watching here was recorded earlier on the left approaching a gas station there making a U-turn heading back into the streets what you're looking at on your right is what's happening in real time, live, and we've seen this sort of Pursuit title reflected in the aggression of driver D hitting a vehicle there, pushing that state police vehicle to maneuver out of that area and heading to other intersections , hitting other drivers. pushing them out of the way, people who seem to be trying to get out of the way and then other people you know unsuspectingly, can't really tell what's going on, but trying to get out of the way and they couldn't either.

So this again is a video, if you join us on the left of the chase when it was in action, this is an emergency response vehicle that collided with a Maryland police vehicle there on the left and then was fleeing by the Move maneuvering here hitting the cars as you go and then to the right Z we see that this vehicle has stopped and we are waiting to see what happens there, yes, try to get there, so this image on the right is of White Oak , the MVA that is. where we're parked right now where that driver stopped and uh Adam just for a little context here originally you said we were just watching this truck driving with no police behind it, we found out that the vehicle was stolen.

It was good? Then this happened. This started. We started monitoring him in Calverton. Sky9 was on the scene of this vehicle he was driving. Other cars were passing him on the road. It looked like an emergency vehicle on the road with its lights on. There were no police cars on the road in Pursuit at that time, even at that time, we were told that the Maryland State Police helicopter was not even involved, it was simply the news helicopter that was overhead after this and then , as he approached. Until we finally went on air with this was when this vehicle began to be chased by the officers.

All you have seen in our air is all the impacts that the vehicle has caused and is now moving again. We're moving again here, but every impact was with other vehicles and I've counted at least 10 of them so far. We have all seen it. Nothing else happened before we went on air except this vehicle evading the police through an office. Downtown parking lot and hit some power lines while going over a grass field leaving this parking lot in an attempt to get away from the officers who were following the signs, you were just saying something about the white oak, do we think it's in the White Oak ?

The Oak area right now is a sort of white oak Silver Spring Route 29 in that area, that would make sense, it's hard to follow as the helicopter has been very concentrated very close to it, but we know this started in Calton. Route 29, then we saw the suspect take 95 southbound and take Powder Mill so it's in the Beltsville area White Oak so yes White Oak would be closer to Silver Spring Route 29 so it looks like could be in that area. Yeah, it looks like we're on Route 29 at this point and we just noticed the driver passed a couple of officers there and yeah, you're back on the highway again on 29, which of course is a fair important among In the DC and Baltimore area, many people would drive this way during their rush hour commute home.

There don't seem to be many vehicles where this vehicle is located right now, suggesting that maybe people understand that something is going on here. and they need to get out of the way, yeah, so we talked a minute ago about some of those officers that cleared the area trying to close some of these roads. The assumption here is that they assumed he was going to get back on the road. So they are trying to close as much as they can, but at this point you have to wonder what their strategy is to try to get the driver to stop.

Yes, because he stopped, but clearly, as you can see here, the driver continued. we go and say you don't actually know who is in this vehicle, we don't know where this vehicle was sent, this emergency dispatch vehicle or if it was, we're not sure how this stolen vehicle took off on the highway. how this actually started, so we're watching this as it develops and we're trying to piece together the details as much as we can as we see this happening. Are you hearing or seeing anything else there? So I'm standing right next to the wsa 9 task desk, so as soon as the information comes in I'll be able to get it to you, but I just want to point out that you see the sparks from the chains trailing on the back of that vehicle that wasn't there Even this vehicle made that evasive maneuver to escape from the police outside the parking lot of an office center and went into a grassy area, cut a bunch of electrical wires, there were a lot of sparks that dislodged some of the things in the back of the vehicle and that is what we are seeing there, those CH.

I was going to say that you could see him moving too much, mhm, but what is it, what is surprising. You touched on this before too, minus, we're talking about Route 29 here. I guess this is what we're traveling for right now. There wasn't a lot of traffic before, but now we're starting to get to an area where there's a lot of traffic, where there's a traffic light here, yeah, so you're pushing harder. Those cars and people out of the way, yeah, so Prelude drives good, so I know where we are here now, now he's heading in the direction of sort of Columbia Maryland, so you're on 29. you just passed downtown from downtown uh Silver Spring headed more towards the Columbia area, the Beltsville area and you can see a lot of cars moving off the road, it has a lot of terrain to move around and that's like a two or three lane highway, at that point it's going to pass the gas stations, it's going to pass, yes, there is the gas station, it's going to pass a shopping center on the right, that's where Trader Joe's is, if it's a landmark that people can see when crossing the street. road going into the opposite side of traffic now oh boy this is trying to get off the road this is a problem so this is what we saw before they were just letting this driver do it but this is where probably look at this here, hit another car, yeah, you're going to have to stop this much sooner as you watch this driver, get another car, three more cars, four cars, five cars, doing another maneuver to get back. at 29 oh, it seems he stopped at this Tre.

I don't know if he's stuck or stopped NOP he's trying to get out of there again so this all started with a report of a stolen truck right Adam that's how Okay so we have officers approaching right now they seem to be opening the door and they are taking him out of the car. It looks like they are going to try to get him out of the car. We saw him move a little. Those weapons are drawn. I'm not sure if we're going to cut, it looks like they're trying to break the back window, they're trying to get in somehow because as you saw a minute ago, this is really a threat right here.

When you have a driver maneuvering on the streets like this with a lot of traffic on the roads in such a busy part of town, you also have the K9s and dogs on the scene, as well as a lot of those Maryland State Troopers. Police, Prince George's County Police arrived on scene a little early, multiple jurisdictions are working to stop this driver, they are trying to break the glass, they can't say there is any movement in the car right now, I mean . I'm on the screen right now ads. I don't know if you can see it, they're banging on the window trying to get in, but as far as the movement behind the wheel, I can't see any and you know.

What has to scare officers right now because we don't know if this suspect was armed, we don't know how he took control of this vehicle and also how, if this vehicle is going to stay there, stay there. instead, did you shift it into a different gear? Is it still moving? There's a truck running, we're getting it out. Okay, we're watching this together. This is the roadside assistance truck that was reported stolen. It's off at 29 right now on the side. of the highway police are responding and it appears they have the person as the driver and this all started shortly before 5pm when we were watching it unfold yes that's right around 515 520 okay it was then when we first learned that there was a Be on the lookout for this vehicle and we saw it crash into some of those other cars before just hope those people are okay too so you have doctors.

I'm sure he will respond to those scenes to make sure those people are okay. I saw some of those cars spin 180° when this truck just crashed into them. You have to feel for all those people who were trying to get from point A to B on a Friday night before this snow storm we're all expecting and now. All of a sudden they have wrecked cars and possible injuries so we heard this is right near the Northwest Branch Recreation Center trying to get it up yeah so it's not far. You mentioned Trader Joe's in that area. Les, so we are. it would seem also I was just going to say that it looks like we're looking at the officers dealing with a single person, we weren't able to get a good shot uh at any point to see how many people were in this vehicle. even though officers came in from both sides, it appears they are dealing with whoever was driving this vehicle there on the driver's side on the ground.

They had the Kines come, the Kines were called back, looks like they have this. person in custody, yes this is right off Route 29 and Lockwood Drive which is not too far from the downtown Silver Spring area. If you're just tuning in, we've been watching what was once a police chase involving an emergency response vehicle from d dot. That yellow truck that normally dispatches to help people who need help on the road became a threat on the road being tracked by several jurisdictions trying to stop it and ended up right here on 29th where police were able to remove the suspect. from that vehicle they threw it to the ground and are in the process of assessing what damage it left in its path from Calverton to here hitting cars left and right people who had no idea what was happening or were trying to get out of the way and we saw this kind of increase in intensity, it started where he was just moving and then he became more aggressive as a driver and that's when you noticed the police had Ste back up a little bit just to recalibrate and find out.

Their approach when they noticed this driver was becoming more aggressive, he started approaching some of the busiest areas of our city and that's when they moved, they thought they had to stop immediately because there were many lives in danger at that time. Hello, ads according to our count, what are we saying? At least a dozen cars got caught up in this, at least a dozen until this last harah by the suspect going through that gas station and then he crashed into a couple more, so I'd say. Somewhere around 20 vehicles have to be hit by this including police vehicles and that was the first vehicle that we saw the suspect hit trying to escape here about 10 minutes ago and the question now is, do you know again who this person is? and because? this truck was stolen to begin with what were the plans for we talk about car thefts and stolen vehicles in our area quite frequently and you know it's not often you get a state truck stolen and it's not often we see a car stolen . with a multi-jurisdictional chase happening as well Adam, you mentioned that obviously this is a Friday night, it's rush hour, it's people trying to get ahead of the storm that's happening, a lot of things are happening right now, so people are certainly He didn't anticipate here we go.

Again, that was one of those boom moments, three four cars there, as the driver was quite AG.