ELKRIDGE, Md. (AP/WMAL) — A Maryland State Trooper shot and killed a suspected drunk who police say dragged the officer around half a mile down I-95 while attempting to escape a traffic stop early Friday, the agency said.
The trooper spotted the motorist – identified later as 36-year-old Julio Cesar Moran-Ruiz of Baltimore -weaving across multiple lanes of traffic on the highway near Elkridge in Howard County around 2 a.m. and pulled him over on suspicion of drunk driving, State Police said in a statement.
The trooper, joined by another officer, approached Moran-Ruiz and asked him to get out of the car for a field sobriety test. Moran-Ruiz refused to get out of the car.
The troopers reported seeing multiple alcohol containers inside the vehicle and a machete under the driver’s seat, investigators said.
Moran-Ruiz accelerated when a trooper reached in to remove the keys from the ignition and dragged the trooper down the road according to Maryland State Police Superintendent Col. Jerry Jones.
“The preliminary investigation indicates the trooper yelled repeatedly at the driver telling him to stop and warning him that he would shoot,” Jones said at a press conference Friday.
Jones said the driver ignored the commands and continued to speed down the interstate.
“Fearing for his life while being dragged by the car, the trooper fired his department issued pistol at the driver, striking him,” Jones added.
The trooper was thrown into a median and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries and released later Friday morning.
Howard County emergency medical services pronounced the driver dead at the scene.
Both troopers were placed on administrative leave pending an internal affairs investigation.
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