You've heard it before -- "Move over. It's the law in Maryland," and when an SUV came dangerously close to a deputy during a traffic stop on Route 40 near Elkton on Monday morning, another deputy tried to pull it over.
"The vehicle momentarily came to a stop, but accelerated away and reached speeds up to 88 miles per hour," said Lt. Michael Holmes of the Cecil County Sheriff’s Office.
Police say they backed off from the chase, but the driver, later identified as 23-year-old Tyrell Jean Coates, didn't back off of the gas until he lost control of the Chevrolet Equinox on Maryland Avenue striking a tree and then careening through a doublewide garage door across the street.
"The thing was he didn't just knock the first one. He went right to the center and he knocked that whole section out," said Leslie Still, Sr. who adds plenty of vehicles have struck that same tree in his yard before, but not quite like this. "A stolen car... It was a new car... fairly new because they said it was a 2017 car and it was Pennsylvania tags on it. Now, we don't know if he stole the car with the tags on it or whether he had tags put on it or what, but that was the whole idea. You can see where the marks that were right there in the grass."
Police say Coates ran from the scene, but a deputy with a canine pursued him through the neighborhood and ultimately caught up with him.
That's when they learned of another possible motive behind the suspect's desperate bid to escape.
"He had multiple bags of heroin, two bags of cocaine and also a small amount of marijuana in his possession," said Holmes.
Police say, at one point while he was running from police, Coates even passed cars on the wrong side of the road.
He now faces 34 separate charges and traffic offenses.
