Flavio Lanuza, 27, of Laurel, pled guilty Thursday to second-degree assault on a law enforcement officer among other charges in connection with a Feb. 16 incident in which he led police on a half-hour chase.
Lanuza faces up to 14 years and 10 months in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12.
Lanuza also pled guilty to fleeing and eluding marked police vehicles by failing to stop his vehicle and causing injury and 11 counts of failure to return and remain at the scene of a crash.
He struck two Maryland State Police vehicles and injured a state trooper as well as striking 11 other vehicles, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s office.
He also has charges pending in Prince George’s County in connection with the same incident.
The incident began when Maryland State Police’s College Park Barracks reported a stolen state Department of Transportation yellow Ford F450, which was quickly located on Route 212 in Beltsville, according to court records.
When police attempted to stop the vehicle, the drive accelerated and sped away, according to court records. The driver drove off a paved lot and into a grassy area, striking multiple powerlines.
Police followed him onto Cherry Hill Road, and Lanuza “intentionally collided” with a marked state police vehicle and continued on, according to court records. He soon collided with another state vehicle, pushing it more than 50 feet. The trooper in that car was injured and taken to the hospital.
Police followed the vehicle as it crashed into several other cars but was stopped as the driver rode over stop sticks that the police had set up. The tires of his vehicle were destroyed, but Lanuza continued on by driving on its metal rims while traveling in the wrong direction of traffic.
The incident drew to a close when the vehicle became stuck on soft ground and multiple officers surrounded it on Route 29 in Silver Spring.
The officers broke the trucks’ window and eventually pulled the defendant out of the vehicle. He was taken to the hospital and then arrested.
At the time of the incident, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson previously confirmed Lanuza is a citizen of Nicaragua who is in the country unlawfully.
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