SILVER SPRING, MD – On Tuesday, January 25, at approximately 6:15 p.m., the Montgomery County Police Emergency Communications Center (ECC) received a call advising that deputies from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office were engaged in a fight with a Montgomery County inmate inside of a bathroom at Holy Cross Hospital.
31-year-old Steven Ray Beitzel had been transported to Holy Cross for medical care. Once at the hospital, Beitzel denied treatment and had been discharged from the hospital. As he was being escorted out of the hospital, Beitzel advised deputies that he needed to use the bathroom. While in the bathroom, Beitzel feigned illness and the male deputy called his partner into the bathroom for assistance. When the deputies released the restraints from Beitzel, he then began to assault the deputies. Additional units were requested to the scene.
During the assault, Beitzel attempted to get ahold of a deputy’s firearm. After a brief struggle, Beitzel was taken into custody and transported back to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Officers and Deputies were treated for their injuries at Holy Cross and released.
Beitzel is being held for a series of bank robberies committed in Montgomery County. He is now also being charged with first- and second-degree assault, disarming a law enforcement officer, and first degree escape.