In the span of one month, three people — including a 3-year-old girl — have been killed in separate crashes in Prince George’s County after drivers took off, reportedly after police tried to pull them over for traffic stops.
Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General will be investigating the deadly wrecks. The OAG’s Independent Investigations Division conducts all police-involved incidents, including crashes, that result in a death.
At a news conference Monday, Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz was asked about the spate of fatalities following traffic stops between Feb. 28 and March 21.
Aziz said he had a very “brief answer” for drivers who take off from police during a traffic stop: “Stop. The police put the red and blues on you? Stop. There’s not a whole lot of discussion on that.”
In cases where a life is lost when a driver flees police, Aziz said, “The police are there to do a job.”
“There’s no reason to run from the police for whatever you’re facing,” he added.
Prince George’s State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy picked up on Aziz’s message, and addressing drivers who are pulled over, she said: “Whatever the charges that you were being stopped with which — typically in these cases were traffic offenses — the consequences of those violations are nowhere near the consequences you’re going to face when you flee, when your car spins out of control, hits another vehicle, and someone dies.”
Braveboy said people who are pulled over by police should not assume that they can flee and get away with it. It is not, she said, the easy way out.
“It’s the tough way out. Because now you’re going to be facing significant charges, facing significant time, and having to deal, for the rest of your life, with the guilt of taking someone’s life. It’s just not worth it,” she said.
Braveboy said the maximum penalty in Maryland for motor vehicle manslaughter is 10 years in prison.
3 separate crashes leave 3 dead
According to the OAG’s website, the first crash occurred Feb. 28 just after 10 p.m., when an officer with the Hyattsville Police Department tried to pull over a Lincoln sedan in the 3300 block of East West Highway.
The driver initially stopped, according to the account, and then took off. The Hyattsville Police officer pursued the car briefly, before calling off the chase when they approached the intersection of East-West Highway and 23rd Avenue.
At that point, according to the account, the driver of the sedan crossed the intersection, sped onto the shoulder of the highway and hit and killed a pedestrian, later identified as Esmeralda Montoya-Perez, 33, of Riverdale, Maryland.
On March 7 around 6:30 p.m., an officer with the District Heights Police tried to pull over an Infiniti SUV in the 6000 block of Marlboro Pike. After being stopped, the driver then sped off onto Addison Road South, a statement from the OAG reads. The District Heights officer reportedly lost sight of the SUV and provided a description over the police radio.
Two officers, one with District Heights and the other with Capitol Heights, reportedly turned on their lights and sirens and tried to stop the car on Addison Road South. The SUV then struck four other cars, killing one of the occupants, identified by the OAG’s office only as “a juvenile.”
WTOP news partner 7News identified the child killed as 3-year-old Zoey Rose Marie Harrison.
In the third deadly crash following a traffic stop on March 21, Seat Pleasant Police attempted to pull over a Genesis sedan in the 6300 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Highway in Landover. After stopping, the driver of the Genesis then sped off, and Seat Pleasant Police issued a lookout for the driver of the sedan.
Minutes later, according to the OAG’s office, Prince George’s County Police officers spotted the sedan, turned on their emergency equipment and tried to stop the Genesis before the driver collided with a white SUV near the intersection of Belle Haven Drive and Martin Luther King, Jr. Highway.
The driver, a woman, was in the vehicle with her child. The woman, who has not been identified as of Monday evening, was killed. The child in the car was treated for “non-life-threatening injuries.”
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