Edgemere Suicide Victim Was Fleeing Police

The death of a Dundalk man who leaped from a highway overpass while fleeing police earlier this month has officially been ruled a suicide.

Tommy Andrew Willig, 38, of the 7100 block of Holabird Avenue, died after jumping off an Interstate-695 overpass near Edgemere on Aug. 10.

A high-speed chase involving Willig and police was the result of an open warrant for Willig’s arrest, following allegations of stalking, telephone harassment and trespassing by an ex-girlfriend, Baltimore County police said.

According to the summary incident report, Willig told his ex-girlfriend that he “would kill himself before going to jail.”

After police put out a watch for Willig’s vehicle, he was spotted driving his 1977 Chevy truck near I-695 and Eastern Boulevard by a detective from Precinct 11 in Essex. The detective attempted to stop the vehicle, “however the suspect continued at a high rate of speed,” according to police reports. Eventually, the high-speed pursuit was called off by Precinct 12 shift command for safety reasons.

“It was called off because it would’ve been dangerous to other people to continue and because it was a misdemeanor offenses with a known suspect,” said a North Point Precinct sergeant familiar with the chase and subsequent tragedy.

Patrol cars did continue in Willig’s direction at a slower rate of speed, guided by a police helicopter, which had been tracking the chase. Willig’s Chevy truck eventually broke down and drifted to a stop near an I-695 overpass in Edgemere.

According to police, Willig then ran from his vehicle and jumped headfirst off the overpass as patrol cars and officers approached his vehicle. The fall was estimated to be between 30 and 50 feet in police accounts. Willig was found near railroad tracks below the overpass, near North Point Boulevard, close to the former Bethlehem Steel plant and property in Sparrows Point.

Police Sgt. Benjamin Yohe had said previously that officers found the victim and applied first aid until emergency medical personnel responded, but Willig was pronounced dead at scene.

“There is no way for us to know what he was thinking,” said Baltimore County police spokeswoman Det. Cathy Batton. “We don’t know what his mindset was when he stepped from the vehicle.”

A previous peace order for Willig, by a different woman, was sought in 2009, according to online court records.

After the Medical Examiner’s autopsy, Willig’s death was ruled a suicide, by multiple injuries.