No Charges In Crash That Killed Fire Marshal, FBI Agent (ICYMI)

ROCKVILLE, MD — Criminal charges will not be filed against the Germantown man who killed Deputy Chief Fire Marshal Sander Cohen and FBI Agent Carlos Wolff on Interstate 270 in December 2017.

Roberto Garza Palazios, 28, was cited for negligent driving and charged $280 after an investigation by the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office.

Montgomery County prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence to charge Palacios with criminal negligence.

The Washington Post reports prosecutors determined Palacios drove in a "careless and imprudent manner," but could not prove "reckless disregard" for human life.

Cohen, 33, from Rockville and Wolff, 36, of Gaithersburg were killed on southbound I-270, north of Falls Road, at about 10 p.m. Dec. 8, 2017.

According to police, Wolff's vehicle was involved in a single-car crash and Cohen stopped at the scene of the crash for help, and used his car to block the damaged vehicle from traffic. Cohen was off-duty, police said.

The two officers were standing in the shoulder when Palacios swerved to the left of the stopped vehicles when he was unable to move to the right, Maryland State Police said. Palacios, in a 2000 Honda Accord, struck both men on the highway shoulder.

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Both men were thrown over the jersey wall to the northbound side of I-270, police said. Cohen died on the scene; Wolff was taken to Suburban Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Palacios stopped his vehicle just south of the crash and remained at the scene.

“We’re just absolutely irate,” Marla Wolff, Carlos Wolff’s widow, said to WTOP about the negligent driving charge.

Wolff was an 11-year veteran of the FBI. He left behind his wife, a 7-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter, according to a statement from his family.

Cohen joined the RVFD in 2003 and was also a deputy fire marshal with the Office of the State Fire Marshal, an agency of the Maryland Department of State Police. He grew up in Rockville, was a graduate of Winston Churchill High School and started volunteering at the fire department at age 16.

“Not only did this happen to them, but the law didn't even take care of the justice portion of it,” Marla Wolff told Fox 5. “I can’t even imagine what their reactions would be if they only knew that this would be the punishment – a $280 fine for their deaths.”

Palacios’ attorney, Asim Humayun, described the incident as a "really, really nasty accident."

“I understand that they are angry and upset, possibly with the state’s investigation, but at the end of the day, it was an accident,” Humayun told WTOP.

Palacios was previously convicted on traffic and criminal charges in 2015, The Washington Post reports. He pleaded guilty to driving while impaired.

He also served about four months in jail after he was arrested for smashing windows on cars and lighting a couch on fire near a construction site, The Post reports.

Palacios is a Guatemalan native who faces possible deportation, according to The Post. He was taken into custody by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on May 3 and was charged with overstaying a work visa that expired in 2009.

Humayun told The Post that the immigration case is ongoing.

(Photo of Cohen and Wolff via Montgomery Community Media)