A newly obtained report on a January police pursuit that killed a man and his 74-year-old father-in-law in Harford County reveals that the chase unfolded as part of a federal drug investigation - and not over a half-lit license plate and speeding, as the Maryland State Police initially reported.
The father-in-law, Willie S. Robertson of Bel Air, a retired longshoreman and Korean War veteran, was working as an informant against his son-in-law, according to Robertson's wife, the Harford County state's attorney's office and two law enforcement sources.
His death appears to be collateral damage in a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into his son-in-law, Charles Quinones, 37, who bought cocaine in New York and sold it in Dundalk.
"When my mother told me that [my father was helping the DEA], it just crushed my heart," Yvette Robertson of Catonsville, who lost her husband and father in the crash, said in an interview. "I don't understand. It's just too much. Too much. I have seven children. Oh God."
Robertson, 38, began to cry. She said she had no idea why her father would inform on her husband. "They were close," she said. "They went everywhere together."
Quinones likely knew the risks as he cruised down Interstate 95 from New York before dawn Jan. 13. He had $18,000 worth of cocaine in the trunk, a warrant out for his arrest and a suspended driver's license. But he didn't know he was driving into a trap.
At the DEA's direction, Trooper Jeremy Gussoni and a sergeant detailed to a DEA unit were waiting for Quinones and Robertson at mile marker 99. There, Gussoni pulled behind the Mercury Sable and hit the sirens on his marked Ford Explorer, ostensibly for an obstructed license plate and driving 7 mph over the speed limit.
Quinones began to pull over but then abruptly sped off, according to a dashboard video recording of the 4-mile pursuit, which reached speeds of nearly 100 mph. After turning off I-95 onto Route 155, Quinones lost control and slammed into a tree. He and Robertson, who appears to have never been charged with more than a motor vehicle violation, died instantly.
Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman, said the pursuit was done by the book, taking into account weather, traffic, speed and the seriousness of the offense.
