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Suspect Dies When He Is Thrown From Fleeing Truck In Lawn Tractor Theft

NORTH EAST, Md. (WJZ)—An attempt to steal from a home improvement store led to a fatal car crash in Cecil County.

Weijia Jiang explains police are still looking for four potentially dangerous suspects who got away.

One man lost his life in this brazen attempted theft that happened right across the street from the Maryland State Police barracks. Police are aggressively looking for four others involved.

The new Cecil County Lowe's store doesn't open for business until Thursday, but police say a deadly crime started to unfold there Monday shortly after 4:30 p.m.

A group of five men in a stolen pickup truck showed up to the back lot ready to steal again.

"An employee of the store spotted these five suspects loading a John Deere lawn tractor into the back of the pickup truck. The employee went around to the gate at the fence and closed the gate and was calling 911," said Greg Shipley, Maryland State Police.

The suspects rammed through the gate and sped off but drove into oncoming traffic on Route 40, t-boning another car.

One suspect, identified as 35-year-old David Roland of Elkton, was ejected from the truck bed and later died.

Orange markers show where the crash happened. Police say the impact was so hard, Roland's body was flung across Route 40 and landed in a ditch.

The truck and lawn mower were smashed into pieces and now being held as evidence.

"Before you could leave your doors unlocked, now you gotta dead bolt everything," said Tammy Rhoads, of North East.

Locals like Rhoads worry about growing crime in the area.

A spokesperson for Lowe's says, "We are cooperating with law enforcement. All of our store management is trained and we have different policies or procedures for incidents that happen in the store. Our customers are a priority."

Right now police are sifting through surveillance video and talking to witnesses. If you have any more information, they ask you to contact them.

The driver in the other car-- Stephen Kiszenia, 34, of Chesapeake City-- was treated and released from the hospital.

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