A Baltimore County man, who had been released pending trial in connection to a shooting, has been arrested for allegedly striking three vehicles in Towson Monday evening before evading police, carjacking a woman in a hospital parking garage and fleeing at over 100 mph on Interstate 83 toward the city, where he was apprehended in an alleyway, court records show.
Along the way, Zaron Savyon Elzey, 19, is accused of assaulting three motorists and two police officers, robbing a mother in front of her children in the parking garage of Greater Baltimore Medical Center and stealing her light blue Range Rover, Baltimore County detectives wrote in charging documents.
The alleged incidents led Towson University officials to advise students, teachers and faculty on campus to shelter in place for about an hour Monday evening, as authorities at the time did not know whether the man was armed.
Elzey, of Owings Mills, has been charged with carjacking, robbery, three counts of first-degree assault, two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer and five counts of second-degree assault, as well as theft, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and malicious destruction of property, court records show. He also faces a range of traffic violations, including driving on a suspended license and operating an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.
He is being held without bond pending a bail review hearing Wednesday and does not yet have an attorney listed in court records.
Elzey’s mother, Tekia Hyatt, said her “baby” told her “he had a warrant and was scared that the police were grabbing at him” after officers found him at the scene of a car crash.
“That’s why he did what he did,” Hyatt said. “He wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.”
Elzey had been awaiting trial on charges stemming from a December 2020 shooting on Reisterstown Road. In that incident, police allege he drove a man accused of opening fire on another man to and from the shooting scene, according to charging documents.
Circuit Judge Robert E. Cahill, Jr. signed off on Elzey’s release May 25 and then issued a warrant Sept. 9 after Baltimore County Department of Corrections employees said he balked at the terms of his pretrial supervision, according to court records.
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger noted that Elzey was not accused of shooting anyone; a co-defendant was.
“That probably explains why he got a release at a hearing,” Shellenberger said. “Our notes indicate that we asked for no bail.”
That trial was postponed while Elzey searched for a new lawyer. It’s unclear who’s representing him on those charges.
Hyatt said she raised her son well and that he came from a good family. She said she was unable to get him the help he needed and “the streets got ahold of him.”
“He did wrong, like young kids in Baltimore do. He’s a product of his environment,” Hyatt said. “Despite all of this, my son is not an evil person. Did he do wrong? Yes, he did. Is he an evil, malicious person? No, he is not.”
Baltimore County police said Elzey’s alleged crime spree began around 5 p.m. Tuesday.
That’s around the time officers were dispatched to the area of Bellona Avenue and Stevenson Lane for what was described as a road rage incident involving a gun, according to charging documents.
As they were responding, a man in a Jeep flagged officers down and told them his vehicle had been sideswiped by a multicolored BMW that was driving rapidly on Bellona Avenue.
Further down Bellona, officers found the occupants of a Toyota Highlander, who called police initially. They described seeing the same red and gray BMW sedan racing in the wrong direction on Stevenson Lane and parked diagonally across Stanmore Road, blocking their path, police wrote.
The Toyota driver told police they turned around and left after seeing the driver, who police say was Elzey, reaching at a dark object in his waistband. According to charging documents, they encountered the BMW again on Bellona Avenue, where it began striking the driver’s side of their SUV, almost forcing them off the road, before fleeing.
Meanwhile, detectives wrote, another officer arrived at the scene of a car crash blocking traffic at the intersection of Osler Drive and Cross Campus Drive, near Towson University. Officers said they found the driver of a Honda Accord on the side of the road, and Elzey walking away from the crash.
The Honda driver told officers the BMW collided with the back of his sedan.
Police said the officer asked Elzey if he’d been involved in the crash, to which he responded he had, and asked him to sit down on the curb. According to charging documents, Elzey continued walking away and the officer tried to grab him, but Elzey fled toward the woods, where he dumped his shirt.
Police wrote that the officer was injured in the struggle and when the officer fell during a brief foot chase. Elzey ran off in the direction of the Sheppard Pratt hospital campus, ducking through a tract of heavy foliage; the officer asked for police dogs to help in the search, the documents said.
Someone flagged down police near Sheppard Pratt, saying a man he encountered reached toward his waistband and threatened to shoot him if he didn’t back up, according to charging documents.
Court records show police have not recovered a gun.
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While officers talked to the man who had been threatened, police were called to GBMC’s Iris Park garage.
There, a woman told police she’d just arrived for her children’s flu shots when a shirtless man jumped from the grass, pulled something over his face and rushed her, according to charging documents.
The man asked if her car keys were in her purse, and when she tried to run away, he yanked it away from her, police wrote. She told officers he hopped in the Range Rover and fled.
Hospital camera footage captured the SUV turning onto North Charles Street shortly before 6 p.m.
The Baltimore Police Department’s Aviation Unit tracked the light blue SUV rushing toward Baltimore at over 100 mph on Interstate 83. Baltimore County detectives wrote city police found the car and Elzey in the city.
Elzey told police he saw the helicopter trailing him above, bailed out of the vehicle and ran into an alley, where he was arrested, according to charging documents.
While in custody in Baltimore County, he became hostile, detectives wrote. He allegedly kicked an officer in the stomach and bit the officer on the right forearm.