Suspect rams stolen car into police cruisers at Taco Bell drive-thru: ‘Kept his foot on the accelerator’
A suspect was arrested in Maryland after ramming a stolen car into police cruisers in a Taco Bell drive-thru in Prince George’s County.
The man was seen on Friday in a video obtained by FOX 5 DC being taken into custody at the fast food restaurant on Branch Avenue in Marlow Heights, Maryland.
The identity of the suspect, who was driving a stolen 2011 Hyundai Tiburon, has not been released.
Several Marlow Heights police cruisers were damaged in the collision, including one that was totaled after the man crashed into the police cruisers.
One officer was injured in the incident and was transported to the hospital, where he received treatment and was later released.
“He kept his foot on the accelerator,” Lt. Moses Edwards of the Marlow Heights Special Police told FOX 5. “We were telling him: take your foot off the accelerator, put the car in park, turn the car off. He wouldn’t. You could hear him revving up the motor, revving up the engine and during that time, [an officer] was still pinned in his vehicle.”
A woman riding in the passenger seat of the stolen vehicle told officers that the suspect also ran into a blue sedan that had a father and his 6-year-old child inside.
The two occupants of the sedan are believed to be unharmed.
“She jumped out and immediately put her hands up and said I’m not part of this,” Edwards said.
The car was stolen from outside a home in Southeast DC.
“When I got up yesterday morning and came outside to my car, there was no car,” the owner of the vehicle told FOX 5.
The owner said this was not the first time she had been carjacked and that the thief broke in and started the car 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 said.
Marlow Heights Police Chief John Conklin told FOX 5 that the suspect has previous arrests, including for carjacking.
This comes as the number of car thefts in the area has soared this year.
“It’s up to the state’s attorney and the judges to prosecute and punish them for the crimes they are committing. Without the punishment, it’s going to continue,” Conklin said.
Four of the Marlow Heights police department’s eight cruisers were damaged in the incident. The four vehicles now have to be repaired or replaced.
