‘Highly dangerous’: After local arrests, MoCo officials warn of risks of car rallies and street takeovers
County police working with regional task force to prevent events such as February street takeover in Chevy Chase
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Elia GriffinApril 24, 2026 11:22 a.m.
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Count Me In!In the early hours of Feb. 22, smoke from burning rubber filled the air as a car spun donuts at the busy intersection of Connecticut Avenue and East West Highway in Chevy Chase. Dozens of spectators stood on the pavement watching the stunt, blocking traffic in all directions.
Some of those spectators soon approached a Montgomery County police cruiser that had responded to the scene, according to dashboard camera video footage later released by county police. They began filming what was happening, jumping in front of the cruiser as it moved around and dancing to the sound of its sirens.
At one point, a spectator sprayed a fire extinguisher in front of the cruiser, obstructing the view from the vehicle. After a few minutes, the sound of breaking glass can be heard in the video as the cruiser’s rear window and windshield are smashed while the officer is inside.
The increasing frequency of such illegal street takeovers and car rallies, such as the Chevy Chase event and an early April rally in Kensington that ended with a shooting that injured two people, has spurred local officials to sound the alarm about the dangerous nature of such events. On April 22, county police announced the arrest of three suspects in connection with the Chevy Chase street takeover and one related to the Kensington shooting.
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On Wednesday, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) spoke about the rallies during his weekly media briefing, emphasizing the safety risks the events can pose.
“I want to encourage families to discourage participation in these kinds of behaviors. In addition to being illegal, it’s also highly dangerous,” Elrich said. “Anyone who is standing nearby is at risk of serious injury from the car and the movement of people trying to get out of the way. This could end up going south really quickly.”
Elrich also encouraged residents to notify police if they observe street takeovers or learn of planned rallies.
Illegal car rallies and street takeovers are a growing issue across the region, according to Commander Jason Cokinos of the county police department’s Third District. Rallies are planned for almost every weekend from spring through fall, depending on the weather, he told Bethesda Today in early April.
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“It’s definitely something that is escalating,” Cokinos said. “It’s an obnoxious amount of weekend nights that these things are happening. It’s a big drain on resources.”
While such events can be portrayed as an adrenaline-inducing gathering where auto-lovers show off their cars and watch or perform stunts, Cokinos said the rallies can be dangerous and sometimes violent.
“There are people that are being hit by cars. Cars are frequently crashing with reckless driving behavior,” he said.
He believes people plan and participate in the rallies to create content for social media. “They’re trying to engage in lawless, reckless, dangerous behavior to video record it, publish it online and get clicks,” he said.
In addition to being dangerous, such rallies can attract criminal activity, Cokinos said. He noted that there can be altercations and shootings at the gatherings, and officers have arrested attendees who were driving stolen vehicles, in possession of illegal firearms and frequently identify stolen vehicle tags on participating vehicles.
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Two people were shot during an April 4 rally held at 2:30 a.m. in the parking garage of the Kensington Safeway at 10441 Connecticut Ave., according to police. The victims took themselves to a local hospital. On April 9, police arrested and charged Hermes Matewere, 19, of Laurel, in connection with the shooting.
Details about an attorney for Matewere were not available via online court records as of Friday morning.
Matewere faces two counts of first-and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and multiple firearms violations. He is being held without bond at the county central processing unit in Rockville, according to police. There, Matewere awaits a preliminary hearing on May 8 at the District Court.
The rallies are a “melting pot of content creators, car enthusiasts [and] criminal actors” who “all come to a place to engage in illegal activity,” Cokinos said. “It’s not like it’s a car show … these are people that are looking to push the boundaries for various reasons.”
In June 2024, regional law enforcement agencies formed the Car Rally Task Force with the aim of combatting the “unlawful, large-scale driving events,” according to Maryland State Police spokesperson Elena Russo.
Task force members include police agencies in Montgomery, Howard, Anne Arundel, Prince George’s and Baltimore counties as well as Maryland State Police and the Maryland Transportation Authority, according to Russo.
“All of these departments work together in addressing these illegal exhibition driving events,” Russo told Bethesda Today in late March. “There’s a lot of proactive investigation going on, gathering intelligence to figure out where these locations are going to be planned for.”
Since its inception, the task force has made 91 arrests tied to illegal car rallies, according to Russo. The majority of those arrests – 53 – occurred in 2024, Russo said. In 2025, 10 people were arrested. As of March 31, 28 people had been arrested this year.
Those who are arrested can face charges including disorderly conduct, excessive speed and fleeing a traffic stop, Russo said.
In addition, task force members have recovered 15 stolen vehicles since June 2024 and seized 53 firearms as of March 31, according to Russo.
“Anybody caught racing or taking part in these car rallies, depending on the charges, they face jail time, fines and certainly a number of points [added] to their license. And some can even face revocation of their driving privileges,” Russo said.
What can police do?
High visibility and proactive patrol are the main techniques employed by county police to prevent the events from starting, according to Cokinos. Many of the organized car rally groups communicate on social media, and when they decide on a place to gather, the task force sends officers to patrol the location and nearby travel corridors such as I-495 and I-95.
Cokinos said the task force will track a group as it moves through the region. When a group enters Montgomery County, local officers will attempt traffic stops on those driving recklessly, or if drivers are determined to be in stolen vehicles, he said.
“Every time there’s a car rally that happens, there are generally arrests throughout the night. We may not be able to arrest all 300 of them, but we will arrest as many people as we can,” Cokinos said. “And then a lot of the time, people will just go home.”
The Chevy Chase street takeover was one incident in which officers and the task force couldn’t predict the car rally group’s next move and were not able to get to the intersection in time to prevent the street takeover, Cokinos said. He noted that Chevy Chase is not a common place for car rally groups to convene.
Typically, the groups gather for events in Prince George’s County and travel to Montgomery County, he said. Attendees may come from as far away as Pennsylvania, Delaware and other mid-Atlantic states.
Novorriya Gregory Smith Jr., 20, of Lusby, Maryland; 18-year-old Ayden Joseph Cline of Cumberland, Pennsylvania; and a 17-year-old from Laurel, face several charges, including disorderly conduct, malicious destruction of property, failure to obey lawful orders and hindering in connection with the Feb. 22 street takeover.
“I think that for whatever reason, they were on the Beltway, they tried to come to Silver Spring, but we were able to … disrupt them,” Cokinos said of the Feb. 22 incident. “That’s generally what we do most nights. We disrupt their plan and then they go somewhere else.”
When police are unable to disrupt street takeovers and rallies, Cokinos said, crowds ranging from 40 to 300 people can gather in parking lots and road intersections to watch revving cars perform donuts and burnouts. That’s what occurred on East West Highway and Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase, according to the released dashboard camera footage.
Police said Tuesday that Smith Jr. allegedly smashed the cruiser’s windows and later exposed himself to the officer. Bethesda Today was unable to reach Smith Jr.’s attorney, Jibril Abdussaboor Brown, for comment Friday morning.
As the chaotic scene continued, a voice was heard over the radio, “Officers stay in your cars,” according to the footage.
Cokinos said the responding officers were likely told to remain in their vehicles during the incident due to safety concerns.
“If they were to get out of the car, potentially this crowd could have all attacked the officer,” Cokinos said. “You know, it’s not good odds to have one officer versus 40 violent people that are trying to attack.”
In that moment, Cokinos said, those patrol officers had to wait for backup.
“Once you have a sufficient number of officers there that could ensure a little bit safer scene, then, yeah, if you can grab somebody and arrest them, that’s good. But the safety of the officer and the public and even the suspects are paramount,” Cokinos said. “When you have less officers and more dangerous people, it could increase the chance of us having to use some serious force.”
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine