State Police Update Description of Armed Man on 295 Wednesday, Call on Public for Help

Police altered the description of the man who they say smashed the windshield of a contract speed enforcement Jeep Wednesday morning on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

The suspect—accused of being armed with a shotgun while hitting the windshield of a white Jeep with a hammer on Maryland Route 295—is now described as being a white man in his 50s or 60s, standing about 6 feet tall, weighing between 200 and 250 pounds, possibly with a "pot belly," and wearing clear glasses, according to a Maryland State Police press release. He still is believed to have been wearing a red and blue plaid shirt and blue jeans, and also is thought to have been carrying a dark, possibly black, backpack.

State police investigators believe the man walked through a wooded area near the scene of the incident to a parking lot in the 1300 block of Concourse Drive in Linthicum, where he may have gotten into a vehicle and left the region.

Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley said that shortly before 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, a man was sitting in a Jeep--contracted by the State Highway Administration (SHA) to perform speed enforcement on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway just before the Interstate 195 exit--when a man emerged from a nearby wooded area. The contract worker said the suspect approached the Jeep with a shotgun in one hand and a small hammer in the other and tapped the rear window with the shotgun while yelling incoherently, Shipley said. Police did not confirm reports of gunfire.

"Obviously, the [contract worker] became frightened and started to blow his horn," Shipley said. The suspect then walked around the right side of the Jeep to the front of the vehicle and began to smash the windshield; at which time, the contract worker—described only as being an adult male—exited the vehicle and went to take cover behind the Jeep. Then, Shipley said, the suspect walked back into the wooded area.

The worker was not injured but the windshield on the Jeep was broken, Shipley said. Officers from Anne Arundel County, Maryland State Police and Maryland Transportation Authority, as well as other agencies, closed 295 for about three hours Wednesday as they searched for the man.

Officers are asking anyone who was in the area of the 1300 block of Concourse Drive between the hours of 11 a.m. and noon, or who was along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway around 11:30 a.m., to contact police at the Glen Burnie Barrack at 410-761-5130.