BALTIMORE, Md. – The Independent Investigations Division (IID) of the Office of the Attorney General is investigating a fatal crash that occurred following a police pursuit in Charles County on Thursday afternoon.
On June 29, at approximately 2:00 p.m., officers with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office responded to the 11900 block of Acton Lane in Waldorf for reports of a woman being assaulted by a man in a parking lot and a possible carjacking. Officers were made aware that the man who was not known to the woman left the scene after stealing the woman’s car. The first arriving officer spotted the woman’s car being driven out of the parking lot and attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but the male driver failed to stop and led officers on a pursuit for several minutes. While fleeing south on Mattawoman-Beantown Road, the man lost control of the car, struck a grass median, crossed into the northbound lanes of Mattawoman-Beantown Road and collided with a dump truck. The man was pronounced dead on scene. The dump truck driver suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital. The woman who was assaulted was taken to a local hospital also with minor injuries. No officers were injured.
The IID is investigating this incident with assistance from the Maryland State Police Crash Team.
The IID will generally release the name of the involved officers within 48 hours of the incident, though that period may be extended if an officer is injured, or if there is a specific reason to believe that an officer’s safety is at risk.
There were Sheriff’s officers’ dashboard cameras and microphones that activated during the incident. The IID will generally release body camera footage or dashboard camera footage within 14 days of an incident. There may be situations where more than 14 days is necessary, including if investigators need more time to complete witness interviews, if there are technical delays caused by the need to redact the identities of civilian witnesses, or to allow family members to view the video before it is released to the public.