Baltimore Police Officer Succumbs to Injuries

Jan. 11, 2015
Officer Craig Chandler died as a result of injuries sustained in a crash during a pursuit Nov. 23.

Baltimore police officer Craig Chandler has died as a result of injuries sustained in a crash during a pursuit Nov. 23, the Police Department said Saturday evening.

"We will always remember Officer Craig Chandler #EOW [end of watch] 1/9/15 due to injuries in a LOD [line of duty] car accident. #BPDNeverForget," the Baltimore police tweeted Saturday evening.

Detective Ruganzu Howard said Chandler died Friday evening.

Chandler and a female officer were injured when the patrol car they were riding in struck a telephone pole while pursuing a moped that had picked up a man fleeing a gathering of dirt bike riders, police said at the time.

Police commanders had tried to call off the pursuit before the accident, which also left the moped driver, Deonta Winston, hospitalized. Police charged Winston, 22, with multiple traffic violations. Winston could not be reached late Saturday.

The crash in the 2200 block of Kirk Ave. in East Baltimore left an officer "fighting for his life" police said in November. Chandler was not identified at the time, but on Christmas Eve the police union said it was Chandler and that he was in stable condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

A post on the Officer Down Memorial Page, a site commemorating officers killed in the line of duty, said that Chandler had served with Baltimore police for six years and had been assigned to the Northeast District. As of Sunday morning, officers and federal agents from as far away as Long Beach, Calif., posted condolences on the page regarding Chandler's passing.

"We are very saddened by loss of BPD Officer Craig Chandler on 1/9/15," the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3, the city's police union, tweeted Saturday night. "Succumbed to injuries from LOD MVA [a line-of-duty motor vehicle accident]. We will never forget our Brother!"

A police union representative could not be reached for comment.

City Councilman Brandon Scott, who said he knew Chandler personally, also posted about the officer's death on Twitter. "Rest in Peace Chandler," he wrote. "You suffer no longer. Pleasure to have known you and watch you serve."

The driver of the patrol car involved in the accident, Brandon Bolt, was treated and released. Bolt, who had been with the department since 2013, was suspended with pay at the time. He could not be reached for comment late Saturday.

Baltimore police must get permission from a shift commander to pursue vehicles they are chasing. Police said that a sergeant told the three officers to discontinue the chase, but moments later the officers called for paramedics. Police did not say why the three officers were riding together in a single vehicle.

The last Baltimore police officer to die in the line of duty was Forrest E. "Dino" Taylor, who succumbed in late August 2012 to injuries sustained in an accident in February of that year as he was driving to aid a fellow officer. Taylor was a 17-year veteran of the force.

Copyright 2015 - The Baltimore Sun

Tribune News Service

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