Attorney General Releases Footage From Police Pursuit Preceding Fatal One-Car Crash
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Attorney General Brian Frosh's office on Tuesday released video footage of the police pursuit that preceded a fatal one-car collision in Baltimore County earlier this month.
Baltimore resident Jawuan James Ginyard, 26, died on Oct. 9 after losing control of his car on an exit ramp and being ejected from the vehicle.
In the video, Maryland Transportation Authority police officer Theodore Jeremenko is parked near the intersection of I-395 and Conway Street in Baltimore City. The video appears to show a silver car turning left onto the highway during a red light.
Jeremenko pursued the Monte Carlo thinking the driver was impaired, Frosh's office said.
After merging onto I-95, the driver slows down, puts his hazard lights on and drives on the right shoulder. The video shows the car then merging back onto the highway and speeding up.
Jeremenko calls out the speeds of the Montel Carlo over his radio as it exceeds 85 mph. The car slows down as if to take the Caton Avenue exit, and then swerves back onto I-95.
The footage shows the car speeding off. The Monte Carlo can be seen weaving in and out of traffic as Jeremenko says it is going faster than 100 mph.
Ginyard slows down--"almost to a stop in the middle of the highway," Jeremenko says--and starts to merge onto I-695. Jeremenko gets right behind the Monte Carlo and puts his lights on.
The Monte Carlo pulls off on the right shoulder of the off-ramp. As Jeremenko gets out and approaches the driver's side window, the car takes off and goes onto the beltway.
Jeremenko follows the car to the Wilkens Avenue exit. "He's doing 113 on radar right now," he says over radio.
After exiting, the footage shows the Monte Carlo has crossed the median of Wilkens Avenue and crashed. Ginyard had been ejected and was lying on the side of the road. His body is blurred out in the video.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
The case is being investigated by the Independent Investigations Division of the Office of Attorney General, a unit tasked with reviewing all citizen deaths involving police.
The video can be seen in full here. Warning: Viewers may find some of the images disturbing.