A 20-year-old Catonsville man killed early June 21 after crashing a sports utility vehicle into a flagpole in Dundalk had been pulled over by county police shortly before the crash occurred, according to police.

Keenan Roosevelt Griffin, of the 900 block of Prestwood Road, was driving his father’s 2004 Cadillac SRX at a “very high rate of speed” westbound on Wise Avenue shortly before 4 a.m. when police officers attempted to make a traffic stop, according to Cpl. Michael Hill, a Baltimore County Police spokesman.

Griffin “wouldn’t stop immediately, but then finally did stop” not far from North Point Boulevard, Hill said.

Then, as an officer began to walk up to Griffin’s vehicle, Griffin “took off again,” Hill said.

Hill said departmental policy prohibits police from chasing vehicles unless the driver is wanted for “a very bad felony, such as a murder or rape.”

Since Griffin had only been pulled over for a possible traffic violation, “there was no chase or pursuit or anything like that,” although police did follow Griffin at a much slower speed, Hill said.

After Wise Avenue becomes Holabird Avenue at Merritt Boulevard, police observed that Griffin’s vehicle began to swing from side to side, said Louise Feher, a police spokeswoman.

The vehicle collided with two separate concrete traffic islands and a curb, traveled across a grass surface and struck a metal flag pole outside of a Papa John’s Pizza store, Feher said.

It then struck a concrete patio and a sign support pole, she said.

No other vehicles were involved in the accident, Feher said.

The crash split the large SUV into two separate pieces, she said.

Both portions of the vehicle traveled separately across a driveway and struck the Rapid Screening Center at 7544 Holabird Avenue.

The front portion of the SUV came to rest on its roof. Griffin, who was trapped in the vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene, Feher said.

Feher said speed made the crash “particularly horrible.”

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