The driver of the car Baltimore police pursued Saturday night, a chase that ended in a Roland Park crash that killed his wife, fled from officers in Carroll County twice last fall.
Daniel Scott Moss, 58, was driving the car that Baltimore Police attempted to stop around 11:50 p.m. Saturday because it was wanted in connection with an attempted robbery in Westminster. The ensuing pursuit ended with Moss crashing into a parked car and a tree, killing his wife, 74-year-old Linda Moss, according to the Maryland Office of the Attorney General.
Daniel Moss also was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by a Carroll County judge after he failed to appear for court Wednesday on traffic charges alleging he was driving 100 mph Oct. 15 on Main Street in Hampstead as he attempted elude officers who tried to pull him over, according to online court records.
Moss, who has a rap sheet including convictions in Maryland and other states, also was charged with driving under the influence of drugs and without a license in that traffic stop around 2:30 a.m. Oct. 15.
Deputies with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office tried to stop Moss three days earlier, on Oct. 12, near his home in Westminster, online court records show. From that incident, Moss is charged with attempting to elude police, negligent driving, failing to remain at the scene of an accident involving property damage and fleeing on foot.
Moss is being represented by the Office of the Public Defender in Carroll County on those traffic charges. His attorney there did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
On Saturday night, Baltimore Police officers tried to stop Moss’ car in the 1000 block of West North Avenue in Reservoir Hill, the department said. Police said he fled and that officers pursued him.
Moss eventually lost control of the car, struck a parked vehicle and crashed into a tree in the 5000 block of Roland Avenue in Roland Park around midnight, the attorney general’s office said in a news release Sunday.
Baltimore Police said that officers took Moss to the hospital, he is expected to survive his injuries and charges are pending against him. Online court records did not reflect any charges stemming from the crash as of Monday evening.
The attorney general’s office identified the officers Monday evening as Bradley Roberson and Menachem Rosenbloom, who work in the Baltimore Police Operations Bureau. Roberson has been with the department for a year and a half, and Rosenbloom has been with the department for 2 1/2 years.
As officers pursued Moss in the minutes before the crash, they were instructed to “ease off” the chase, according to a recorded police radio broadcast, in which an unidentified speaker also tells officers to “not push it.”
Baltimore Police policies prohibit officers from chasing fleeing vehicles in cases where the initial violation is a “crime against property,” including auto theft, but officers can chase if there is a felony suspect inside who poses an “immediate threat” of death or injury.
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The attorney general’s office is also probing a crash on North Avenue last month that killed Alfred Fincher, 54, and collapsed a building following a police pursuit of a stolen vehicle. During that chase, police were similarly instructed to “just let it go.”
A week earlier, Baltimore County Police charged Moss with second-degree escape for allegedly absconding from home detention. Moss was wearing a GPS ankle monitor as part of his pretrial release for unlawfully taking a vehicle from a gas station in 2021, police wrote in charging documents.
Moss was discharged from a mental health and substance use program in September and did not receive a new evaluation or reenroll in treatment, as required by his probation, according to court documents.
Linda Moss, who was riding in the passenger’s seat of the car her husband was driving Saturday, died at the scene of the crash.
Police declined to comment Monday, citing the attorney general’s office investigation of the police pursuit that preceded the fatal crash. The attorney general’s Independent Investigations Division looks into all police-involved fatalities across the state.
A spokesperson for the Westminster Police Department said the vehicle Moss was driving in Baltimore was used in an attempted armed robbery at an ATM there Friday evening.
Baltimore Sun reporter Dan Belson contributed to this article.
An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect location of the crash in the headline.