How UMB Police came to the aid of two Baltimore Police officers in 1983.
This story is one in a series celebrating UMB Police and Public Safety’s 50-year history, the milestones that shaped us, and the work we continue today.
Flame licks the night sky. Two police officers — dazed from the crash — huddle behind a retaining wall. Sirens roar to life from the firehouse just four blocks away. They’re safe.
Then, they start to hear the popping noise of ammunition.
It sounds like a movie, but this was the scene at Baltimore and Greene streets in the early morning hours of June 9, 1983. A small yellow car smacked into the side of a Baltimore Police van as officers chased a cab the wrong way down Baltimore Street. The van flipped.
Baltimore Police Lt. Col. Mark Howe was new to the department in 1983. He was sworn in on Jan. 7 — just five months before the crash (he was not involved in the crash or the response).
“It’s a terrifying situation,” he says. “They had to figure out how to get out of the vehicle. It's not a car — it's a big truck, like the old-style bread trucks. They wouldn't be able to get out of one door because the vehicle flipped. They couldn’t go out the back.”
News articles from the time describe a SWAT van in the crash, but Howe says it was actually an emergency services vehicle, which carries extra equipment to support SWAT and other police responses. The city had two vans at the time — one on the east side of the city and one on the west — with two officers assigned. That night, officers Michael Roselle and Lewis Tawney were on duty.
First, the crash. Then, at 2:08 a.m., the van caught fire.
The Evening Sun quoted deputy director of nursing Inez Larichiuta: “(It was) an inferno. ... It went up awful fast, and it was a big, big flame.”
Several minutes later, the van began to explode. According to a 1983 article in Happenings — the University of Maryland, Baltimore's (UMB) newsletter at the time — the van was carrying nearly 200 rounds of ammunition, gasoline, tear gas canisters, and more.
“Any time ammunition catches fire, it’s very, very serious,” says Howe. “People can be seriously injured.”
UMB police Sgt. Chauncey Crockett was working in the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) lobby when a passerby alerted him to the crash.
According to the article in Happenings, Crockett “found (Baltimore Police) Officer Lewis Tawney semi-conscious, and pulled him from the burning van to safety behind the hospital's retaining wall on Baltimore Street."
Crockett’s colleague, UMB police officer Charles “Chuck” Wilson, was working the overnight shift in Plaza Park. Running to the scene, he found both officers had made it safely behind the wall. Wilson got to work, requesting Baltimore Police, Baltimore City Fire, and UMMC emergency room personnel to the scene. He quickly blocked traffic.
Firefighters coming from Steadman Station, less than a quarter-mile away, were on the scene almost instantly. Medical providers from the hospital — less than 50 yards away — ran out to help.
“If something like this is going to happen, you couldn’t ask for a better location,” says Howe.
The air was now thick with smoke from exploding tear gas canisters. Wilson secured hospital windows and doors to keep the smoke from entering.
Eight firefighters were treated for tear gas exposure. The Baltimore Police officers and driver of the other vehicle were treated for minor injuries and released. Miraculously, no one was injured by the exploding ammunition.
Security officer William Groh, who has served UMB Public Safety for more than 60 years, described UMB Police Sgt. Crockett and PFC Wilson as “heroes.”
“They saved lives, that’s all I can say,” says Groh. “They did good police work. They did what we are supposed to do.”