Hit and Run Incident Kills 17 Year Old
The police officials have identified a person who they think could have been involved with a hit and run incident that ended a seventeen year old boy’s life.
The seventeen year old, Joshua Maldonado was riding his skateboard near the intersection of Bear and Gage avenues. It was around eleven o’clock on a Saturday night when he was sadly fatally struck. The driver fled the scene after the incident.
Charles Garcia is the man who the police have identified as a suspect aka a person of interest in the ongoing investigation. They announced this at a news conference.
Suspect, Garcia was described as a “Hispanic Man” who was kind of short for a man, at five foot eleven inches tall. Weighing in at around, two-hundred and fifty pounds.
Captain Carlos Islas Statement about the crash:
We believe he has information regarding this vehicle and the collision on that evening and he is someone we definitely want to talk to.
The vehicle that police think were involved in the hit and run collision was a gray Mitsubishi Galant, which was also registered to Garcia. They say the vehicle would probably have some front-end damage as well.
Police haven’t released a license plate number of the vehicle due to the fact that Garcia was only a “person of interest” at the time.
The devastated brother of the victim as well as the victim’s father, spoke during the news conference on Monday. Christian Maldonado, who was Joshua’s brother, described his deceased brother as a creative person. He also said that his brother enjoyed riding his skateboard around town and taking pictures. The father, asked that if anyone had any information about this, to please come forward and to help the police.
There has been a GoFundMe account made to honor Joshua Maldonado.
Bell Police Chief, Ed Dashido said that the investigators wanted to talk to the other four drivers who had witnessed the incident,then left without helping.
Dashido’s Statement about the other Witnesses
We would ask those four individuals that were in those cars to call the Bell Police Department and give a statement.
Police are asking that if anyone has any information about this incident or where Garcia, please contact the Police Department a.s.a.p. at 323-585-1245 or even call 911.
Pedestrian Dies After Hit and Run
Hit and Run incidents can happen anytime. It can happen whether you are walking on the side walk and then a car could hit you. It could be a car just randomly hitting your car in the parking lot and then leaving. There’s no 100% way to avoid or define a hit and run.
On Monday, yet another hit and run took the life of a female pedestrian. She sadly died after she had been struck by a hit and run driver in the South Los Angeles area.
According to Sgt. Susie Padilla who is with the Los Angeles Police Department, the female pedestrian had been crossing the street, near West Century Boulevard and South Hoover Street late in the evening, around 11:38 p.m. The victim had to be transported to a local hospital where she sadly died later, according to Padilla.
The police believe the vehicle was a blue SUV that hit the female victim. The police are thinking that it was a Toyota 4 Runner. The description of the driver or any other information really hasn’t been released at this time. Hopefully they find whoever did this.
Car Chase Ends Two Men’s Lives
Hearing about someone’s death is always hard. To know that it could have been prevented is always sad. According to the California Highway Patrol, aka CHP, two men have now died when a short pursuit ended in a solo vehicle crash. The crash happened early Sunday and was on Gardena Street.
According to the CHP Officer, Tony Polizzi, the incident started around 2:41 in the early morning hour. The police had to initiate a chase, however Officer Polizzi isn’t sure what prompted the chase.
Polizzi also said that not two minutes later, the car that the officers had been chasing, had crashed near the intersection of Redondo Beach Boulevard and South Broadway.
According to Polizzi, there were two Hispanic men who died in the collision. However, Polizzi didn’t immediately know if the two males were occupants of the pursuit vehicle. Police haven’t released their identities at this time.
While those two men lost their lives, luckily no one else was injured during the incident. On a video you can see the scene where a small car had suffered from major damage to the front side of the vehicle. Luckily there were no other vehicles in this crash, this time.
The crash had ended up closing multiple streets, at least temporarily. According to the reports, South Broadway had to be closed down, from West Compton Boulevard to West 157th Street. Redondo Beach Boulevard had to be shut down between South Main Street and South Figuero Street so that the California Highway Patrol officers could investigate the deadly incidents.
Daniel A. Gibalevich
DAG Law Firm
