Owings Mills Driver Pleads Guilty to Leaving Scene of Fatal 2025 Pedestrian Collision

A driver who did not stop after striking and killing a pedestrian pleaded guilty Monday to failing to remain at the scene of a fatal accident.

Police said Mahmood Ahmad Chaudhry, 66, of Owings Mills, was driving a 2014 Tesla Model S eastbound on Old Court Road near Bedford Avenue around 5:38 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2025, when he struck Gerald Pettaway Sr., 71, as Pettaway attempted to cross the road outside a crosswalk.

A second vehicle also struck Pettaway but stopped at the scene.

A 911 caller reported seeing a man with a cane lying in the roadway. Pettaway was pronounced dead at the scene.

An MTA bus driver traveling westbound witnessed the aftermath of the collision and provided police with surveillance video from the bus.

Using that footage and video from nearby businesses, the Baltimore County Crash Team determined that the vehicle that first struck Pettaway slowed but did not stop before turning right onto Bedford Avenue and driving away at a high rate of speed. The vehicle made several turns before pulling into a 7-Eleven on Reisterstown Road, according to court records.

Court documents identify Chaudhry as the owner of the convenience store. Surveillance video showed a Tesla with a damaged windshield pulling into the parking lot about four minutes after the collision, police said.

Investigators located the suspected Tesla on Nov. 14, 2025, parked outside a 7-Eleven on Greenwood Place in Pikesville.

At the crash scene, officers recovered part of a broken deer whistle, a small device mounted to the front of some vehicles that is intended to warn deer and other wildlife of an approaching vehicle. Investigators found that Chaudhry's Tesla was equipped with deer whistles, with one missing.

When questioned by police, Chaudhry said he had been working the evening of Nov. 11 but did not remember what time he left work. He declined to answer additional questions but provided officers with his cellphone number, according to charging documents.

Investigators later learned the Tesla's windshield had been replaced two days after the crash. Police also recovered text messages from Chaudhry's phone in which he told someone his vehicle had been damaged after striking a deer. Cellphone data placed his phone in the area of the collision at the time of the crash, according to court records.

A crash investigator concluded that Pettaway failed to yield the right of way while crossing outside a crosswalk and determined he was at fault for the collision.

In March, a Baltimore County grand jury indicted Chaudhry on charges of grossly negligent vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent vehicular manslaughter, failing to stop or return to the scene of an accident involving death, failing to remain at the scene of an accident involving death, and failing to immediately stop at the scene of an accident involving death and other traffic offenses.

Under a plea agreement reached Monday, prosecutors dismissed the remaining charges in exchange for Chaudhry's guilty plea to failing to remain at the scene of an accident involving death after knowing, or reasonably should have known, that the collision might have resulted in a person's death.

The offense is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.

Chaudhry is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 11.