Videos of Baltimore County Police pursuit show moments before fatal I-695 crash

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released police body-camera videos Thursday showing the Baltimore County Police pursuit that preceded a fatal car crash on Interstate 695 in April.

Police said a vehicle traveling the wrong direction April 8 on the Baltimore Beltway’s outer loop hit 37-year-old Dimeka Thornton‘s Acura head-on.

The Windsor Mill woman died at a hospital and the driver police were chasing received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries.

The chase began after officers patrolling the 1800 block of Belmont Avenue in Windsor Mill tried unsuccessfully to pull over a man they saw get into a car that had been reported stolen, police said.

Body-worn camera videos from two county officers showed a car peeling out of a hotel parking lot. Police cruisers with lights and sirens turned on followed the driver, according to the videos.

The Independent Investigations Division of the attorney general’s office previously identified the officers involved as Sgt. Ferguson, Officer Daley, Officer Marrero, Officer Hadel and Officer Creter. The attorney general’s office is investigating the pursuit with help from the Maryland State Police Crash Team.

An agreement with the county officers’ union prevents the department from releasing the full names of rank-and-file officers involved in fatal pursuits or shootings, but a county salary database lists officers with the same names, ranks and years with the department as Justin Ferguson, Sean Daley, Rafael Marrero, Derek Hadel and Daniel Creter.

As the police cars pursued the driver, Daley described road conditions and the car’s speed into his radio, according to a video. The vehicle police were chasing at one point hit 68 mph. Daley described the traffic as “light” with no pedestrians.

The car was traveling at about 55 mph as it turned onto Liberty Road. Then the vehicle made made an unexpected turn: onto the Exit 18 ramp. “He is going the wrong way on 695’s ramp,” Daley said.

The officers did not follow the driver onto the exit ramp.

“We’re not playing those games,” Hadel said in a separate video.

Videos from Ferguson and Creter showed officers trying to pull the drivers from the two damaged cars on the outer loop as their vehicles caught on fire.

First responders in one video yanked on the Acura’s door and frantically tried to rescue Thornton as flames and smoke spread.

“Fire extinguisher if you’ve got one!” “Can you cut her seat belt?” officers called to each other in one video.

Officers struggled to pull her out of the car, coughing amid smoke, as orange flames were visible in the front seat. The front of the car appeared crushed.

“Come on, ma’am!” Ferguson said.

Flames spread from the hood all across the front of the car as clouds of smoke and fire extinguisher spray billowed.

“Get me somebody to help me lift her!” Ferguson yelled.

It was unclear from the videos how long it took police to remove Thornton from the burning car.

As Creter approached the car the man had been driving in a separate video, he told other officers that the vehicle was stolen and instructed the driver not to move. Then after a fire started, he told the man to get out of the car, ultimately dragging him out of the passenger side door after realizing his leg might be broken.

“No, you’re leaving the money in the car,” said Creter, referring to dollar bills scattered over the passenger side in the video. “There’s a fire right next to you, come on.”