The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released body-worn camera and dashboard camera footage Tuesday of a fatal police pursuit in Wheaton in December.
Around 10:15 p.m. Dec. 13, Montgomery County Police officers were on patrol when they observed a white Nissan Maxima and attempted a traffic stop in the area of Bucknell Drive and Cambridge Park Court, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Police said that the suspect drove the Nissan into a marked police cruiser during the traffic stop and then fled. Dashboard camera footage from an assisting officer, who was not identified, shows the left side of his vehicle being struck. “He just hit my car!” the officer announced over the police radio.
Officers pursued the Nissan northbound on Georgia Avenue for about 1.5 miles., the Attorney General’s Office said. Then at the intersection of Georgia and Henderson avenues, the driver hit a median, lost control and entered the southbound lanes of Georgia Avenue where it collided with two cars, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The vehicles struck were a Toyota Corolla and Honda Pilot, police said.
The 19-year-old Nissan driver was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the passenger in the car, a juvenile male, was pronounced dead at the scene, the Attorney General’s Office and Montgomery County Police said.
Thomas Lester, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, said the decedent’s identity is “being withheld in accordance with juvenile privacy laws while investigators continue to review evidence.”
Body camera footage from officers shows that the car flipped onto its side, airbags deployed and the front windshield was shattered.
As shown in his body-worn camera footage, Officer Antonio Ruiz repeatedly yelled “County police! Show me your hands!” as he and other officers approached the driver with their guns drawn.
Officers pulled the injured driver out of the vehicle and arrested him at the scene, body-worn camera footage from Officer Michael Chatlin showed.
The drivers and one passenger in the other vehicles were transported to nearby hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, and none of the officers were injured, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The Attorney General’s Office Independent Investigations Division is investigating this incident with help from the Maryland State Police’s Crash Team.