Two Anne Arundel County officers were indicted Friday on charges of misrepresenting material facts in relation to a fatal 2023 high-speed chase in Pasadena, Maryland.
The indictment identified the officers as Eddie Vasquez, 29, and Kieran Schnell, 27.
While Vasquez was indicted on one count of misconduct in office, Schnell faces two counts of the same charge, after the pair allegedly failed to state a fatal crash resulted from the pursuit.
Schnell was hit with a second misconduct charge because he’s accused of submitting factual misrepresentations in an official written police report, in addition to the oral reports he gave to multiple supervisors regarding the crash.
“When police officers are untruthful during an investigation, they not only break the law, but they also undermine the principles of honesty and integrity that are the foundation of all law enforcement’s efforts to protect the public,” Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a press release.
The high-speed pursuit at the center of the indictment happened on Dec. 6 and 7, 2023, after Vasquez spotted four civilian vehicles, including a white Infiniti sedan, driving southbound at about the same speed on Fort Smallwood Road in Pasadena.
According to court documents, Vasquez began his pursuit about 12 seconds after the vehicles drove past his parked police cruiser.
Passing three of the vehicles, Vasquez zeroed in on the white sedan as it continued to gain speed, hitting approximately 115 mph. The speed limit on Fort Smallwood Road is listed at 35 mph.
Schnell joined the pursuit within minutes after spotting the speeding Infiniti.
For the duration of the chase, neither Vasquez nor Schnell activated their emergency lights, sirens or body-worn cameras. They also did not relay the chase to dispatch or contact a supervisor about their pursuit of the white sedan, according to the indictment.
At one point, both police cruisers failed to activate their emergency sirens or lights when weaving around an uninvolved civilian vehicle on the two-lane Stoney Creek Bridge, the indictment states. Vasquez was recorded traveling at approximately 123 mph, with Schnell drove at 107 mph.
The chase came to an end when the Infiniti crashed into a utility pole at the intersection of Fort Smallwood Road and Bar Harbor Road.
The driver was transported to a hospital and released after receiving treatment for his injuries. The front passenger, 22-year-old Damione Gardner, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Only after the crash occurred did Vasquez activate his body-worn camera and tell dispatch that a crash happened.
Signs of a police pursuit were not detected until the following day, Dec. 8, by investigators with the police department. The discovery was relayed to officials with the Maryland State Police and the Maryland Office of the Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division.
Schnell and Vasquez have been with the Anne Arundel County Police Department since November 2019 and September 2020, respectively.
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