ANAHEIM, Calif.—A man was arrested about eight hours after abandoning a speeding, stolen SUV that struck and killed a woman in Anaheim early April 22.
Officers were dispatched about 1:20 a.m. to the 700 block of North East Street, after the Anaheim Police Department was notified by the Placentia Police Department that a traffic collision involving a stolen vehicle had just occurred, and the driver fled the scene on foot, Anaheim police Sgt. John McClintock said.
Officers at the scene reported the SUV had crashed into several residential fences and struck a pedestrian, a woman in her 40s, McClintock said. Paramedics rushed the woman to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
“The initial investigation revealed the driver of the stolen vehicle fled from a Placentia P.D. officer and lost control of the stolen vehicle as he sped southbound on East Street,” the sergeant said. “Investigators determined Placentia P.D. officers were not pursuing the stolen vehicle before the collision occurred.”
Officers from the Anaheim, Placentia, and Fullerton police departments conducted a perimeter search but were unable to locate the suspect, McClintock said.
“At approximately 9:10 a.m., Anaheim P.D. officers responded to a church in the 1400 block of East La Palma Avenue regarding a suspicious subject,” he said. “Upon officers’ arrival, they contacted a man at the church and determined he was driving the stolen vehicle during the fatal collision.”
Officers arrested the man and booked him into the Anaheim jail for suspicion of offenses including vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, hit-and-run resulting in injury or death, DUI causing great bodily injury, and possession of a stolen vehicle, McClintock said. His name was not immediately released
Anyone with information about the crash was asked to call Anaheim police at 714-765-1900 or Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855-TIPOCCS.
