WASHINGTON — No charges have been filed yet, but police say speed and alcohol appear to be factors in the June 25 crash that killed teenagers Alex Murk and Calvin Li in Montgomery County.
Police will present their investigation to prosecutors soon. Montgomery County Police Capt. Tom Didone says a witness told police that the driver — Samuel Ellis — was worried about getting a ticket from a speed camera.
Someone in the car told him that if he “went fast enough, the camera can’t get you,” Didone recalls.
The witness said the car hit speeds of up to 105 miles an hour. Police could only prove it was going 65 miles an hour, which is still 30 miles per hour over the limit.
The car struck a fence, slammed into a tree and came to rest upside down in a homeowner’s yard. Murk and Li were in the backseat and not wearing seatbelts.
Didone says the teens had been at an underage drinking party, that an adult was home at the time and could face charges.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
