LAGUNA BEACH : Patrol Car Runs Over Man in Intersection
A police officer ran over a homeless man late Wednesday night with his patrol car, sending him to a local hospital with severe head injuries, authorities said.
Donald Elroy McMehan, 57, was listed in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, hospital spokeswoman Nancy Gasho said.
Police Sgt. Greg Bartz said Officer Greg Walloch, an eight-year veteran of the force, was on his way to investigate an alarm at 10 p.m., when he saw too late that a man was crouched on all fours in the middle of the intersection of Beach Street and Broadway, one block from the Coast Highway.
Walloch was unable to stop his car and “rolled over the pedestrian at a low speed,” Bartz said.
Brake failure is “one of the things we are looking at” in establishing a cause, Bartz said.
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