Police detained a “person of interest” Tuesday in a hit-and-run that killed a 13-year veteran officer of the Maryland Transportation Authority police on New Year?s Eve in southwest Baltimore.
Courtney G. Brooks, a 40-year-old father of three, was killed while working a traffic detail on northbound Interstate 95 near the exit to Interstate 395 around 11:20 p.m. Monday, police said.
The owner of a Ford Explorer that hit the officer, Kerri King, 30, was arrested in her Elkton home on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear for a court date in connection with September 2007 drunken-driving charges.
She was being held at the Cecil County Detention Center on those charges, but has not been charged in the Brooks investigation, Brown said, and investigators had not determined if she was driving at the time of the hit-and-run.
Brooks, of Hampstead, was working with Baltimore police to keep commercial vehicles out of the city, described as a homeland security precaution during holiday festivities.
“Speaking to his family last night, time and time again they emphasized how much he loved the job he was doing,” said Marcus Brown, the Transportation Authority police chief. “He was a real inspiration to everyone who worked with him.”
Police said Brooks was working near 30 to 50 flares, and his vehicle had its emergency lights on, Brown said. Two partners were taking a break.
The driver of the Explorer appeared to get off the exit, then veered back though the flares, Brown said. After hitting Brooks, the driver continued northbound on Interstate 95, through the Fort McHenry Tunnel.
Brooks was transported to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead. With the help of witnesses? descriptions, police said they located the vehicle ? which had temporary Delaware tags and significant front-end damage ? at a Flying J truck stop off exit 100.
In a statement, Gov. Martin O?Malley called the tragedy a “somber reminder” of law enforcement work, even as thousands of Marylanders rung in the new year.
Nancy Fields, a neighbor of Brooks? home on the 3800 block of Dakota Road, described him as an “all-around family man.”
“It?s just one of those things, you can?t come up with words,” Fields said.
