COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland State Police have identified the man arrested for stealing a Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDSHA) tow truck and responsible for a series of hit-and-run crashes across two counties.
Flavio Cesar Lanuza, 27, of Laurel, was arrested at the scene. The charges pending include vehicle theft and first-degree assault.
It all started Friday, shortly before 5 p.m. when troopers from the Maryland State Police College Park responded to a hit-and-run crash involving four vehicles at the inner loop of I-495 at the Greenbelt Metro Station.
One of the motorists, who was driving a Ford Ranger, fled the scene. A preliminary investigation revealed that Lanuza was the driver of the Ford. He drove into the I-495/I-95 Park and Ride lot, where it went off the road and struck a guard rail.
When a SHA CHART vehicle got to the scene to check on the welfare of the driver of the Ford, he then got out of his car and stole the SHA truck, fleeing the scene.
Around 5:50 p.m., troopers from the Rockville, Forestville, and College Park barracks located the stolen truck in the area of Briggs Chaney Road at Greenmount Road in Calverton, Maryland.
The driver then entered a parking lot off Beltsville Road at Calverton Road, ran off the road, and struck a pole attached to a powerline, eventually ramming a Maryland State Police vehicle and several other civilian vehicles before entering Priscilla Road in Montgomery County.
By 6:30 p.m., MSP and Montgomery County Police managed to arrest the suspect after his vehicle became disabled in the 10700 block of Columbia Pike, ending the police chase in Silver Spring.
All in all, 13 vehicles were struck during the exchange. One civilian and two law enforcement members were being transported to area hospitals for treatment of their injuries.
The case remains under investigation.
