3 Die as Driver Runs Red Light at South-Central Intersection

A driver who ran a red light was one of three people killed when his minivan struck a pickup truck carrying two people early Friday at a South-Central Los Angeles intersection, police said.

German Gonzalez-Lopez, 40, allegedly was driving a Ford Aerostar above the speed limit north on Avalon Boulevard when he struck a Ford Ranger as he ran the light at Florence Avenue about 12:50 a.m., police said.

Harold Devaughn Powers Jr., 26, of Inglewood, and his 23-year-old girlfriend, Seira Taumateine, died at the scene. Gonzalez-Lopez died later at a hospital.

Police said county sheriff’s deputies who were in the area observed Gonzalez-Lopez, a South-Central resident, speeding on Avalon Boulevard, but were not pursuing him at the time of the accident.

Powers recently graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a sociology degree, his parents said.

His mother, Elaine, 55, said he and Taumateine, of New Zealand, were on their way to a 24-hour post office to mail a job application. He wanted to meet a May 25 application deadline for a county Probation Department job, she said.

“Harold wanted so much out of life,” his mother said Friday afternoon at her Inglewood home.

“He always felt that so much of our people--black people--were in jail, and he thought that he could do something to help.

“He wanted to be a lawyer someday. He thought maybe if he got a job at the Probation Department, that could be his start.”

Powers’ father, Harold, said: “I keep standing here waiting for his truck to pull up. I need someone to just tell me that this is a dream, that this is not true.”