5 Hurt, Fetus Killed During Police Chase

Five people were injured and an unborn child was killed in South-Central Los Angeles on Sunday during the fourth police chase in two days that has resulted in injury or death to bystanders.

In the last two weeks, at least 10 people have been killed--all but two of them bystanders--and numerous others have been hurt during chases in Los Angeles, Riverside and Ventura counties. Three people were killed in such chases over the weekend.

The latest incident occurred about 12:20 a.m. Sunday when a Cadillac deputies suspected had been involved in a fast-food restaurant robbery ran a red light and broadsided another car carrying a pregnant woman, killing her unborn child, said Deputy Rob Weber of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Injured in the second car were David Vargas, 35, his son, David Jr., 2, a woman identified as Lupe Medina, who was six months pregnant, and another man whose identity was not available.

The driver of the Cadillac, Dwight Wilson, 32, will be charged in the fetus’s death, Weber said. Wilson was treated at Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital/Drew Medical Center, as were the others, Weber said.

Wilson had an accomplice who robbed a cashier at the drive-up window of a Burger King restaurant at El Segundo and Avalon boulevards, Weber said. “We believe (the robber) got out of the car at some point” before the chase, he said.

The first of the weekend pursuits began in Ventura County on Friday night after a California Highway Patrol officer saw a pickup truck driving erratically on California 126 and gave chase. After fleeing for seven miles, the truck rear-ended a van, killing 16-year-old Victoria Gonzales. The 21-year-old driver of the pickup was arrested.

The second incident involved an Irwindale police officer who chased a suspect after he raced past him early Saturday in a stolen car. The fleeing vehicle ran a stop sign and broadsided another car, killing a 50-year-old El Monte man. The suspect was apprehended.

The third incident involved Border Patrol officers and Riverside County sheriff’s deputies chasing a car that sped away from an immigration checkpoint near Temecula after officers allegedly spotted guns in the vehicle. The driver of the Cadillac allegedly made a U-turn in the freeway and drove into traffic before plowing into another car, killing its driver. The suspect was injured in the crash, deputies said.