MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — A man is dead after a brief police chase on I-270 ended with a crash in Rockville, Maryland, officials said. The crash closed lanes and caused major backups.
Officers with the Montgomery County Police Department responded to a call for a welfare check of a man in a car on the ramp of Rockledge Road around 5 a.m.
According to police, officers arrived at the scene to find a man by himself unresponsive with a gun on his lap. Officers believed the man was intoxicated.
When officers tried to stop the man from leaving, he drove off, heading northbound on I-270. A brief pursuit was initiated, police said, and the driver crashed on I-270 south of Route 28.
The man was then ejected from the car and pronounced dead at the scene, according to Montgomery County police.
Officials have identified the man as 37-year-old Lawrence White of Washington, D.C.
The crash involved other cars on I-270. Two other people were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, an assistant chief for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue David Pazos said.
The main lanes of northbound I-270 remain closed while MCPD conducts a crash reconstruction.
The Maryland State Police Crash Team and the Maryland Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division responded to the location.
The local lanes are getting by, but traffic delays are backed up to I-495 and the building. According to police, traffic is being diverted before northbound I-270 and Falls Road. The crash closed at least three lanes closed on the southbound side of I-270, but all lanes have since been reopened.
The investigation has been handed over to the Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division per Maryland law.
Sign up for the Get Up DC newsletter: Your forecast. Your commute. Your news.
Sign up for the Capitol Breach email newsletter, delivering the latest breaking news and a roundup of the investigation into the Capitol Riots on January 6, 2021.