WALDORF, Md. — The Charles County Sheriff’s Office released body-worn and dash camera video of a traffic stop that ended in a fatal crash.
The Aug. 25 incident began when deputies stopped a vehicle. The Arlington County Police Department had requested the stop after learning one of the occupants had more than 20 active warrants out of Arlington, Fairfax, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Howard, Anne Arundel and Frederick counties, several of them felonies.
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Deputies confirmed the front-seat passenger was the subject of the warrants.
Body camera video shows deputies instructing the driver to step out of the vehicle. As she did, the front seat passenger climbed over the center console into the driver’s seat.
She then pushed a deputy out of the doorway, knocking his body camera loose, and drove off with the back-seat passenger still inside.
Dash cam footage shows the suspect fleeing at high speeds as deputies pursued the car. At one point, the officers lost sight of it because of heavy traffic. Radio traffic captured the lead deputy saying he would call off the pursuit if no units were ahead of him.
After deputies spotted the car traveling the wrong way on a highway, a supervisor ordered the pursuit terminated.
Seconds later, deputies saw the car had crashed into two vans in the southbound lanes of Crain Highway near McKendree Road in Prince George’s County. They stopped to help the injured motorists.
Footage showed the woman had crossed the median from the northbound lanes into oncoming southbound traffic, passing behind the deputie’s vehicles before striking the vans head-on.
The woman suffered serious injuries and was taken to a hospital. The back-seat passenger was flown to a trauma center, where she died. The occupants of the vans were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
