A hearing began Monday to determine whether an unlicensed driver will go to trial on murder charges for allegedly causing the deaths of two children by crashing into a family's vehicle in Mountain View at high speeds while trying to evade police.
Angel Velasquez Salgado, 20, is charged in the Dec. 8, 2023, crash on an Interstate 805 off-ramp that killed two boys identified by family members as 8-year-old Malikai and 4-year-old Mason Orozco-Romero. The boys were riding in the backseat of a car that was rear-ended, propelled down an embankment and into a tree, where it caught fire.
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The boys' mother was also a passenger in the car and the boys' nanny was driving. Both women survived the crash.
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The deadly collision has prompted calls to review San Diego police vehicle pursuit policies, with the city's Commission on Police Practices recently recommending changes, including avoiding pursuits for minor traffic violations.
In Salgado's case, the two officers involved in pursuing him testified that they first took notice of a headlight out on Salgado's BMW.
After following the BMW for a short while, the officers testified that it abruptly pulled into a residence's driveway on 32nd Street. A records check of the vehicle indicated its registered owner did not live at that address.
SDPD Officer Jackson Carroll, who was driving the police vehicle involved in the chase, testified that the BMW later left the residence, and he tried to pull its driver over.
The BMW then started speeding away and made other unsafe driving maneuvers such as swerving around other cars and running a stop sign, according to Carroll.
The BMW then went onto northbound Interstate 15, where Carroll testified it was "actively attempting to evade us" by speeding and frequently switching lanes. From Interstate 15, the chase continued onto eastbound state Route 94, then to southbound Interstate 805.
Carroll said the BMW drove onto the shoulder and in an MTS bus lane in order to get around slower vehicles. At one point, Carroll said he was driving around 80 to 90 mph to catch up to the BMW, but it was driving faster and gaining separation.
The officers lost sight of the vehicle near the 43rd Street exit, where the crash occurred. Though the officers could no longer see the BMW, both testified to seeing "a cloud of dust" ahead of them in the area of the off- ramp
The BMW was found down the embankment, idling, and with its driver door open, but the driver was missing. Prosecutors allege Salgado abandoned the car and was arrested a few blocks away while hiding in a residential neighborhood.
SDPD Officer Joshua Leiber, the passenger in the police vehicle, testified that the driver of the other vehicle was out of her vehicle and screaming that there were kids in her car.
Body worn camera footage played in court showed part of a tree draped over the car and flames emerging from the rear of the vehicle.
Leiber testified that he ran to the vehicle and saw both boys unconscious in the backseat. The damage to the car prevented him from being able to open the backdoor, Leiber testified, so he used his police baton to smash the rear window and pulled each boy out of the wreck.
Salgado remains jailed without bail. His preliminary hearing is expected to take approximately two days.
