Deputy Dies, Info Not Relayed on Radio

Officials say that the response to a July domestic disturbance was handled correctly, but questions are being raised after an 18 year-old driver was killed by a Calvert County deputy who was responding to the incident at 110 mph in a 45 mph zone, unaware that the victim had told a dispatcher her angry husband might have already left the house. Rachael Campbell was killed when her car was struck by Dep. C. Wayne Wells’ patrol car. He was responding to the Priority 1 incident, reported as an angry husband kicking in the door to his wife’s house and threatening her. While Wells responded, the victim told a sheriff’s dispatcher that her husband might have left. That information wasn’t relayed to Wells, and three minutes later the collision occurred–Campbell’s car was destroyed and it caught on fire. Well’s patrol car overturned. Comm center director Jackie Vaughan said dispatchers didn’t believe the information changed the situation. However, an attorney for the Campbell family believes the dispatchers erred in not telling Wells what the woman had said. The family is planning a lawsuit over the incident, but said they’re more interested in reform. Ironically, Campbell was in the sheriff’s Explorer program, and was known by many of the agency’s deputies. Read more here.