Driver Who Hit Race Crowd Was Unlicensed, Files Show

Darren Jamar Bullock was driving on a suspended license Saturday when his Crown Victoria struck 13 spectators, eight of whom died, at a middle-of-the-night street race in Prince George's County, according to public records and two law enforcement sources.

Bullock, whose license was also suspended for a time starting late in 2006, surrendered his license to the state Motor Vehicle Administration on Jan. 23, according to MVA records. The license was still listed as suspended yesterday.

About 3 a.m., Bullock plowed into a large crowd that had gathered on Indian Head Highway in Accokeek to watch the race, police have said. Bullock was not involved in the race, they have said, and investigators are searching for the two drivers who were.

Bullock, 20, has not been charged in the crash, and police said yesterday that all aspects of the case remain under investigation. They have not publicly identified the Crown Victoria driver or said whether he was speeding.

A relative of Bullock's declined to comment on the status of his license. She said the family was consulting a lawyer and expected to release a statement this week.

On Monday, Bullock's uncle said Bullock was not speeding and tried to stop when he saw the silhouettes of dozens of spectators standing in the road. James Michael Walls said Bullock, a Waldorf resident, has been in a daze since the crash.

The MVA records do not specify the reason for the first suspension, but they indicate that Bullock's second was for accumulating too many points on his license. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly, said that at the time of the crash, his license was suspended.

According to the records, Bullock was cited for speeding twice in 2005 and in January 2006 was cited for going 30 mph over the speed limit. On May 27, he was pulled over and charged with driving with a suspended license and having a child younger than 16 without a seat belt in a vehicle, Charles County court records show. He is scheduled to appear in court March 27 on those charges.

Cpl. Clinton Copeland, a Prince George's police spokesman, said that skid marks were visible on the stretch of road Saturday but that it was too early to know whether they came from an attempt by Bullock to stop or from the squealing tires of the racers. Painstaking accident reconstruction, he said, will be necessary before drawing final conclusions.

"Whatever information people give, [we'll] try to see if the evidence matches," he said.

Copeland again appealed for witnesses to the crash to come forward. He said police have not identified the two drivers who participated in the race.

Also yesterday, Maryland lawmakers and local officials called for tougher laws to combat illegal street racing, potentially targeting spectators and organizers, too. Street racing is a misdemeanor in Maryland, punishable by a fine of as much as $500.

Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D), chairman of the Prince George's delegation, said penalties are so weak that they are "just something you laugh at."

"Getting into a car and intentionally doing that on a public road is no different than picking up a gun and shooting a gun at random," Muse said. "When you behave that way behind the wheel of an automobile, seeing the kind of devastation it's caused, then obviously we see it the same way."

Del. Jolene Ivey (D-Prince George's) suggested installing speed cameras on such rural roads as Route 210 and using technology to immediately alert police officers when a vehicle goes too far above the speed limit.

Ivey, whose husband, Glenn, is the county's top prosecutor, also expressed support for a law prohibiting people from being spectators at illegal street races. "Maybe they wouldn't have been out there if they'd known that it was not just illegal for the people racing, but that it was illegal for them to be present," she said.

In California, where police and state officials have aggressively targeted street racing for a decade, several jurisdictions make watching a race a crime and allow police to impound spectators' cars, said Sgt. Skip Showalter of the Riverside, Calif., police.

Racers' cars can be impounded, and sometimes judges order them crushed in public displays of disapproval, he said. Cars with illegal modifications run afoul of California's tough anti-smog laws as well, potentially racking up thousands of dollars in repairs and fines for drivers.

State grants also pay for training officers on how to spot racing and for overtime costs for officers to patrol likely race spots. A 2007 state law also makes it a felony to participate in a street race that results in death or injury, he said.

Charles County Sheriff Rex W. Coffey (D) said that enforcement has been increased on county roads once known as hot spots for street racing and that the effort might have pushed racing to Prince George's.

"I have a huge commitment to visibility of officers," Coffey said. Street racers "know where they're less likely to get caught, and Charles is no longer that place."

Staff writers Megan Greenwell, Avis Thomas-Lester, Ernesto Londo¿o, Philip Rucker and Ovetta Wiggins and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.