Md. State Trooper Arrested After Abduction
Kelly McPherson
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) ―
Baltimore County Police have arrested a Maryland State trooper for allegedly abducting a man and driving while intoxicated.
What happened at 3 a.m. Saturday has cost a Maryland state trooper his job.
Kelly McPherson reports it happened exactly one year after he graduated from the state police academy.
Police say off-duty state trooper Bruce Wrzosek, 22, pulled up to a Towson drive-thru and ordered up trouble.
Baltimore County Police say they were called to Taco Bell by employees, who said they were being disturbed by a drunken trooper turning on his siren and trying to pull people over in the drive-thru lane.
"When our first officer got there, the trooper indicated that he was OK. But the officer didn't suspect that things were OK. Actually, he smelled an odor of alcohol," said Corporal Mike Hill, spokesperson for Baltimore County Police.
Before police got there, Wrzosek had thrown a 20-year-old man into the front seat of his cruiser. That man said while in the drive-thru, the trooper yelled, "Get the [expletive] out of the way." When he drove off from county police he said, "They can't do [expletive] to me."
County police chased the trooper into a residential area to Tilmont Avenue. The witness inside the trooper car told police it felt like they were going 95 miles per hour during the chase.
In the trooper's neighborhood, he failed the heel-to-toe sobriety test. During the test Wrzosek said, "That's great, I'm drunk."
Then before finishing he said, "I'm done, lock me up."
The county's investigation showed there was no reason for Wrzosek to force the 20-year-old man into his car at the restaurant's parking lot. The trooper is charged with DUI, false imprisonment and eluding police.
State police spokesman Greg Shipley says Wrzosek has been fired. During the incident, police say Wrzosek was dressed in plain-clothes but was driving his police car.
The trooper was still within his two-year probationary period, so his firing was swift.
"This type of behavior is not part of the Maryland State Police and is in no way condoned. This is completely inappropriate for anyone who wears this uniform," said Greg Shipley, Maryland State Police spokesperson.
Wrzosek is in the Baltimore County jail on $500,000 bond.
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