Police Chase

A 15-year-old runaway, who was shot by a Howard County police officer after a high-speed chase, was in serious but stable condition today at the Shock-Trauma Unit in Baltimore, a hospital spokesman said.The resident of Riverdale in Prince George's County, whose name was not released because of his age, was flown early yesterday to Shock-Trauma in Baltimore. He was shot in the left shoulder, the hospital spokesman said.About 12:15 a.m. yesterday, Officer Kevin Meile saw three teens in a Toyota 4-Runner speeding west on Interstate 70 near Md. 97 in Cooksville.

Rebecca Chona says she was getting her three small children ready to play Tuesday and watching "Good Day Baltimore" when her husband called during a break at work to talk. As they spoke, she was distracted by a report about a Halethorpe man who allegedly fled from police and stole a police cruiser before being shot and killed by officers. Rebecca and Sundeep "Sunny" Chona wouldn't learn for another four hours that that man was Sunny Chona's 26-year-old brother, Munpreet, known to his friends and family as "Monty.

A group of teen-agers on a joy-ride in a stolen car led Baltimore County police on a chase yesterday, which ended when their car smashed head-on into a pickup truck.Six youths between 13 and 17 years old were taken to hospitals following the crash, police said. Four were transported to the Shock-Trauma Unit in Baltimore, where one was reported in critical but stable condition, police said. One was admitted at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the other was treated at St. Joseph Hospital and released.

A New Jersey man accused of stealing a Pennsylvania motorist's van at knifepoint died early yesterday in a crash with a parked tractor-trailer on the Baltimore Beltway, ending a chase by state police at speeds up to 100 mph.The wreck, in which a state trooper also was injured, occurred about 11 p.m. Friday on Interstate 695 near Joppa Road in the Lutherville-Brooklandville area.Four state police cars had converged on the stolen vehicle, which police said was traveling about 100 mph.Tfc. Frank Mills, a 20-year veteran, struck the suspect's vehicle with his cruiser in an attempt to get the suspect to pull over.

A gunman wearing sunglasses and a suit robbed a credit union yesterday in one of Columbia's largest shopping centers, then eluded an off-duty police officer who chased him through the parking lot and had pinned him to the ground at gunpoint.The robbery, in which no one was hurt, was the second at the Columbia branch of Tower Federal Credit Union in the Snowden Square Shopping Center in the past several weeks.Last night, Howard County police were holding a man suspected of being an accomplice in the holdup after a high-speed chase along Interstate 95. The driver, whom police would not identify, broke through the toll plaza leading to the Fort McHenry Tunnel with a gold Chrysler Cirrus, police said.

A man driving the stolen cab of a tractor-trailer led a caravan of police cars on a chase through Baltimore City and two Maryland counties yesterday afternoon, ramming vehicles and injuring a state trooper before stopping just outside the National Security Agency headquarters near Fort Meade, state police said. The injured state trooper, Cpl. Mark Bailey, and the suspect were flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where both were treated and released, state police said. None of the other drivers involved in collisions was injured.

The driver of a tractor-trailer cab led police on a 80-mile chase from East Baltimore to Cecil County yesterday afternoon, and was finally stopped when police said a state trooper shot the vehicle's tires as it approached the Delaware line. Authorities said they took the unusual action of firing on a moving vehicle because several attempts, including laying a spike strip across the road, failed to stop the speeding rig. "It was obvious that the driver was evading the police and was operating in a reckless manner, placing other motorists in grave danger," said a statement from State Police Lt. Joseph A. Baker Jr. State police charged Gregory M. Wallace, 36, of the 800 block of Exeter Hall Ave. in Northeast Baltimore last night with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer, vehicle theft, possession of drugs and numerous traffic offenses.

The woman arrested Wednesday for suspected drug offenses and attempted escape from pursuing officers would not have been on the street if judges had not been so lenient with a repeat offender ("Police chase in Northeast Baltimore ends in Baltimore Co.," Jan. 9). I propose that judges who continue to release such offenders should serve half of the original sentence when they are brought back in for another criminal act. I am certain that The Sun will agree. F. Cordell, Lutherville Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Man steals $2,000 from gas stationAn unidentified man stole $2,000 from the Hess gas station at 451 Baltimore Blvd. in Westminster at 8:45 p.m. Friday, Maryland State Police reported.A white man about 20 years old, wearing a tan baseball cap and gray sweat shirt, walked into the station's office and took the money from a tool box, police said.No one had been charged with the theft as of yesterday.Baltimore man jailed after police chaseA Baltimore man was being held on $25,000 bail at the Carroll County Detention Center yesterday after leading police on a high-speed chase and assaulting an officer early Saturday in Westminster, Maryland State Police reported.

A passenger in a 1991 Acura that investigators said had been carjacked was killed when the vehicle rolled over four times and crashed near Hanlon Park after a police chase yesterday afternoon.The victim, Toney Wade Wall, 28, of the 3700 block of Spaulding Ave. had been sitting in the back of the car when a man riding in front pulled a gun, ordered the driver out and began driving, police said.Rescue workers extricated Mr. Wall from the car and flew him to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5 p.m. of multiple injuries.