Six bandits armed with semiautomatic weapons, including a Tech-9 machine pistol, interrupted an all-terrain-vehicle outing at a Laurel quarry yesterday, stealing three ATVs from their owners - along with the vehicles used to transport them, Prince George's County police said.
Thirty minutes later, a Dodge Dakota believed to have been taken at the quarry was being pursued by Prince George's police when it crashed in Silver Spring and triggered a chain-reaction accident that injured 12 people, authorities said.
The holdup was staged about noon at a quarry near Van Dusen and Virginia Manor roads. The robbers arrived in a Jeep Liberty, confronted the owners of the ATVs at gunpoint and took three vehicles - a Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Dakota and Ford F-150 pickup, each with at least one ATV, police said.
In Silver Spring, the Dakota crashed into a Honda on New Hampshire Avenue, setting off a crash involving about a dozen vehicles. At least 12 people were hurt, one of them seriously, Montgomery County police reported.
The driver of the Dakota escaped on foot. A Tech-9 machine pistol was found inside the vehicle, Montgomery police said.
Police had made no arrests in the incident.