Video captures car fire after Harford County crash killed drug deal suspect

A video obtained by CBS News Baltimore shows the aftermath of a fiery crash that killed a person suspected of making a drug transaction after a brief pursuit with deputies in Harford County.

Deputies with the Crime Suppression Unit (CSU) of the Harford County Sheriff's Office spotted a suspected drug deal on Meadowood Drive in Edgewood.

As deputies attempted a traffic stop, the driver led a brief pursuit before crashing into four other vehicles at the intersection of Route 40 and Route 543. 

The vehicle caught fire, and the suspect driver, who was trapped inside, died in the crash, according to deputies. Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said the pursuit lasted for 96 seconds.

"Here in Harford County, we still believe in good proactive policing, and that's what this was," Gahler said. "This was our Crime Suppression Unit watching a drug transaction take place, trying to do a directed on a suspect involved in that transaction, and the suspect made a decision...to put people's lives at risk, including his own."

Gahler said two others involved in the crash were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A deputy rescued a driver before another vehicle caught fire.

"The deputy who was in pursuit, who was well back from the suspect vehicle, saw a citizen struggling to get out of a vehicle and was able to rescue them before it caught fire," Gahler said.

The Attorney General's Independent Investigations Division (IID) responded to the scene to conduct its state-mandated investigation.

DeAndre Brown, a witness, described the fiery scene, saying there were "flames everywhere."

"Just black everywhere, just people…kinda like, it was really nothing you could do," Brown added.