WHEATON-GLENMONT, Md. — The Maryland Office of the Attorney General released has the dashboard and body-worn camera footage from a police chase in Montgomery County that turned deadly, taking the life of a juvenile.
An independent investigation into the police chase and deadly crash continues. The crash happened on Dec. 13, 2023 around 10:15 p.m. on northbound Georgia Avenue in Wheaton
Officials say officers with the Montgomery County Department of Police were on patrol when they attempted to pull over a Nissan Maxima for a traffic stop near Bucknell Drive and Cambridge Park Court.
During the traffic stop, officials say the Nissan hit a marked police cruiser before taking off. About 1.5 miles away, the driver reportedly struck a median, lost control and went into the southbound lanes, hitting a Toyota Corolla and then a Honda Pilot at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Henderson Avenue.
The driver of the Nissan is identified in public records as 19-year-old Antoine Randall. He was taken to an area hospital with injuries that weren't life-threatening and was later taken into custody. Another person who was riding in the Nissan, only identified as a boy under the age of 18, was killed in the crash.
According to public records, Randall had skipped probation after pleading guilty in July of 2023 to attempted armed robbery, and a warrant had been issued for his arrest in October, according to court documents in the probation case.
"On the evening of December 13, 2023, the defendant was the driver of a vehicle involved in a fatal traffic collision wherein his front seat passenger died," the documents say.
Randall has not been charged in the wake of the crash, but remains in custody in the probation matter according to the records section of the Montgomery County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Both drivers of the other two cars, and a passenger, were taken to area hospitals for treatment.
The day after the crash, the Independent Investigations Division (IID) of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General announced plans to investigate the deadly police chase and the traffic stop that started it all.
Officials say the pursuit involved both marked and unmarked MCPD cruisers. The marked police cars are equipped with dashboard cameras. IID will generally release that footage within 20 business days of the incident, but it was released on Tuesday, Feb. 6. The delay allowed investigators more time to review the footage and conduct witness interviews.
Maryland's Attorney General has not determined if the police pursuit was justified. One officer's car was rammed by the fleeing Nissan which came careening off a sidewalk, the video shows. The officer in the struck vehicle continued assisting in the pursuit. Authorities have not reported any police were injured.
According to Montgomery County police pursuit policy, a chase is authorized when an officer believes a felony has happened, a DUI is suspected, or if there has been a hit and run where someone was injured.
The Attorney General has named the officers involved as:
- Sergeant Jeffrey Brewer
- Officer Aaron Bachofsky
- Officer Andrew Synan
- Officer Kevin Martinez
- Officer Michael Chatlin
- And Officer Antonio Ruiz.
The released footage shows the moments the vehicle was spotted from the views of different police vehicles via dashcam, once even showing when one of the cruisers was hit by the car the juvenile was driving. The body-worn cameras show the aftermath of the collision, when officers soon after respond to the scene, asking for the people in the vehicle to show their hands, trying to determine if their was any entrapment, eventually getting one person out of the car, handcuffing him, and asking if he can feel his legs.
At the scene of the crash, the car can be seen heavily damaged, on its side, with smoke coming from it, and debris and belongings scattered across the street.
Anyone with information about the investigation is asked to contact the Office of the Attorney General's IID at 410-576-7070 of by email at IID@aog.state.md.us.
In a 2021 analysis of Montgomery County pursuits, the police department found pursuits rarely occur in the county.
"In 2021, there were only 36,449 traffic stops but 37 pursuits still occurred," the report says. That's an occurrence rate of 0.1%.
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