As the man revved the engine of his black pickup Monday night and it launched toward his ex-girlfriend and the 11-year-old boy sitting with her on the stoop of her Linthicum home, the woman said she was frantically calling police.

Debra Gloria Ferrick began yelling to a 911 dispatcher that the driver was pulling into her driveway in his truck, county police said. She screamed the name "Ronald Brandt" - and the line went dead.

Police say Mr. Brandt - under a hours-old court order to stay away from Ms. Ferrick - slammed his truck into the house on the 800 block of Nursery Road shortly after 8 p.m., hitting Ms. Ferrick and her...