Officer Patrick Kepp is fighting for his life after a suspected DUI driver hit him in the early hours of October 18. Details of the incident indicate that the teen driver of a Dodge Challenger intentionally hit Kepp. That driver, 19-year-old Raphael Mayorga, is being charged with attempted first-degree murder, among other things.
Police Chief Marcus Jones says that this is far from the department’s first contact with Mayorga. Evidently the teen is somewhat well-known in the department and even to Kepp specifically for provoking officers to chase him.
“Between April 28 and June 1 of this year, on four separate occasions, he [Mayorga] baited the police here in Montgomery County into high-speed chases along 270. That was effectively what he was doing again on this particular evening,” said Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, according to Fox5. “During some of the previous chases, they [police] would actually make phone calls to him. They knew who he was, he knew who they were, and he dared them to try and catch him.”
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Montgomery police decided to employ a different strategy to apprehend Mayorga in this case. Instead of directly chasing him, police set up a series of officers at various locations to track the Dodge. They claim to have seen him driving at over 110 mph (177 km/h). Then, at one point they decided to deploy stop sticks in an effort to stop the car. That’s when Kepp exited his car to complete that task.
According to Jones, there is clear video evidence (not yet released) that shows Mayorga traveling across multiple lanes to intentionally hit Kepp. After the impact, it was Kepp himself who actually called in EMS to get aid. Jones said in a press conference that without that on-scene aid, Kepp likely would’ve died. A helicopter rushed the officer to the hospital but as of this writing, it appears that he’s lost the use of his legs.
The teen driver didn’t make it much further. A second officer successfully deployed stop sticks and brought the chase to an end. Police arrested Mayorga and one more passenger. According to authorities, that passenger will not be charged but instead will be treated as a witness.
County Executive Marc Elrich also spoke at the press conference and suggested changing legislation in an effort to end the sort of behavior that the driver was known for. “This should not be treated as a regular traffic incident and we should talk to our legislators about a way of criminalizing this in a different way, this is a deliberate action and not just a traffic violation, ” he said.