Prince George’s County police refused to identify the off-duty officer who was driving a cruiser that struck another car, killing its 20-year-old driver, Brian C. Gray, of Bowie.
To the dead man’s mother, though, the name of the officer is less important than coming to grips with what she saw Monday as she witnessed the accident that killed her oldest son.
“Every time I close my eyes, I see it,” Mary Gray said in an interview with The Examiner.
Mary Gray was following behind her son in her car as he left home Monday morning on his way to the University of Maryland, where as a junior he was majoring in criminal justice.
His mother said he hoped to become a Prince George’s County police officer.
Instead, at 7:15 a.m. an off-duty Prince George’s County officer struck the driver’s side of Brian’s car as it turned from Beaverdale Lane onto Bel Air Drive.
Gray later died at Prince George’s County Hospital from severe brain trauma.
Rolling to the stop sign behind her son, Mary Gray saw the impact and the smoke. She ran to Brian, trapped in his red Chevrolet Beretta, and applied CPR until the rescue squad arrived.
“It’s a 25-mile-per-hour zone,” she said. “You just can’t kill someone going 25 miles per hour.”
The police have not released the name of the officer, pending an accident investigation, that they say could take more than a month to complete.
“It’s a very, very tragic accident, and a team of investigators are working on it,” said Cpl. Diane Richardson of Prince George’s County police. “The name of the officer wouldn’t make a bit of difference right now.”
At the hospital, Mary Gray made the decision to donate her son’s organs.
“He had a smile and eyes that will live on forever,” she said. “I wanted to donate his eyes because I want to walk down the street someday and see them — they sparkle blue and green.”
Mary Gray said she has had limited contact with police since the accident. She said her immediate interest was in arranging for her younger son to see the car and have “closure.”
Brian made a second home at T.J. Elliott’s Restaurant, where he’d started as a busboy at 14 years old and rose to management while attending college.
“Sometimes you battle bad attitudes in this business, but Brian was just the opposite. He was popular, he kept tense moments light, he made employees around him feel good,” said owner Jimmy Marcos.
Brian’s mother, along with two younger siblings, takes one small consolation from her family’s tragedy. Seven years ago, her husband died from a brain tumor. Now, she believes father and son are together.
“I asked his dad to take him because I can’t have him anymore, and I’m just so thankful he has someone up there with him.”
