Suspects identified in fatal Frederick County police chase

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office has released more details, including the identity of the suspects, in a fatal chase that started in Pennsylvania and ended in Frederick County, Maryland.

Around 2:30 p.m. Monday, Pennsylvania State Police asked the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office for help in pursuing a vehicle occupied by David Robert Leatherman and Bryan Paul Selmer. They were in a stolen passenger truck from Pennsylvania, crossing into Frederick County near Emmitsburg.

Leatherman is a wanted fugitive in an attempted homicide, according to the sheriff’s office.

The pursuit went down south on Maryland Route 15 into Thurmont and back north toward Emmitsburg.

The suspects fired shots at pursuing law enforcement, disabling a Cumberland Township Police car near Mount St. Mary’s University. The officer was not hurt.

As the suspects kept going north, they crashed in the median between the north and south lanes by the exit for Route 140. They got out and fled on foot.
Leatherman took off into a housing area where a Pennsylvania State Trooper and a Frederick County sheriff’s deputy confronted him and tried to arrest him. The trooper and deputy fired their weapons, and took Leatherman into custody.
Neither Leatherman nor the trooper and deputy was hurt, the sheriff’s office said.
Officers caught up with Selmer on Silo Hill Parkway between a gas station and a fast-food restaurant. Near the gas station, the sheriff’s office said that Selmer faced deputies and “took a shooting stance with his arms extended in front of him, with his hands together, consistent with a person holding a firearm.”
Deputies fired their weapons and struck Selmer. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The sheriff’s office said that eyewitnesses and videos from businesses support what was reported about Selmer’s shooting.
The deputies and Pennsylvania State Trooper are on administrative leave. Their names have not yet been released during the investigation.
Anyone who saw what happened or have video of what happened should call the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office at 301-600-3934.

Abigail Constantino

Abigail Constantino started her journalism career writing for a local newspaper in Fairfax County, Virginia. She is a graduate of American University and The George Washington University.

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