Woman killed when SUV crashes into her home during police pursuit
A woman was killed and a man seriously injured when an SUV crashed into their Crenshaw home during a police chase early Saturday.
Officers from the Southeast Division were driving to the South Traffic Division around 1:20 a.m. when their patrol car was rear-ended at Hobart and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a news release.
When the officers got out and approached the vehicle that rear-ended them, the driver fled, speeding north on Western Avenue, police said.
The officers pursued the vehicle as it traveled west on 39th Street. When the suspect reached Buckingham Road, he tried to turn and lost control, crashing into the bedroom of a home, police said.
Two residents, a man and a woman, were trapped under the SUV. Paramedics responded and pronounced the woman, Aida Villavicencio, 86, dead at the scene. The man suffered head trauma and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, authorities said.
A suspect injured in the crash was taken into custody and taken to a hospital for treatment, investigators said.
Police identified him as Eliseo Ixchopcalel, 26, and said he had been booked on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter. He was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, arrest records stated.
A Los Angeles police sergeant visited the scene Saturday morning and gave a floral arrangement to a family member of the woman who died.
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