A suspect was taken into custody in Maryland following the collision of a pilfered vehicle with police cruisers at a Prince George’s County Taco Bell drive-thru.
In a video that FOX 5 DC was able to obtain, the man was seen being taken into custody at the fast food restaurant on Branch Avenue in Marlow Heights, Maryland, on Friday.
The suspect, who was operating a pilfered 2011 Hyundai Tiburon, is still unknown.
A number of Marlow Heights police cruisers sustained damage in the collision, one of which was completely destroyed when the man collided with the cruisers. After being hurt in the incident, one officer was taken to the hospital, where he received treatment before being allowed to go home.
According to Marlow Heights Special Police Lieutenant Moses Edwards, “he kept his foot on the accelerator,” FOX 5 was informed. “We instructed him to depress the accelerator, shift into park, and then turn off the vehicle. He refused to. He was ratcheting up the engine and you could hear him doing so while [an officer] remained stuck in his car.”
Officers were informed by a woman seated in the stolen car’s passenger seat that the suspect also struck a blue sedan carrying a father and his 6-year-old child. It is thought that none of the two people inside the sedan were hurt.
“She jumped out and immediately put her hands up and said I’m not part of this,” Edwards recalled.
The vehicle was taken from outside a Southeast Washington, D.C. home.
The owner of the car said to FOX 5 that “there was no car when I got up yesterday morning and came outside to my car.”
The owner claimed that she had been the victim of carjacking before and that the thief had entered the vehicle without her keys.
“It’s unfortunate, but I kind of feel like people need to get jobs and work for whatever they get instead of taking whatever they can that’s materialistic, and it’s unfortunate the woman didn’t realize she was in a stolen car,” she stated.
John Conklin, the chief of Marlow Heights Police, told FOX 5 that the suspect has been arrested before, including for carjacking.
This coincides with a sharp increase in vehicle thefts in the region this year.
“To prosecute and penalize them for the crimes they are committing is the responsibility of the state’s attorney and the judges. It will go on without punishment, according to Conklin.
The event resulted in damage to four of the Marlow Heights police department’s eight cruisers. It is now necessary to replace or repair the four vehicles.
