A member of the U.S. Navy is dealing with DUI and vehicular murder charges after the pickup truck he was driving plunged off a San Diego bridge, eliminating 4 individuals and hurting 9 at a festival.
Richard Anthony Sepolio, 25, was stationed at the naval base located at Coronado Island throughout the bay from San Diego, was alone in the truck Saturday afternoon when he lost control and fell 60 feet onto a supplier’s booth at Chicano Park, California Highway Patrol Officer Jake Sanchez stated.
Sepolio stayed hospitalized Sunday with severe injuries. His rank or task description was not instantly available.
” It’s terrible. It’s horrific. We had innocent individuals down here having fun, and now they’re gone,” Sanchez said after the crash.
The individuals who were killed were Cruz Elias Contreras, 52, and Annamarie Contreras, 50, of Chandler, Arizona; and Andre Christopher Banks, 49, and Francine Denise Jimenez, 46, both from Hacienda Heights, a suburb east of Los Angeles, the San Diego County Medical Examiner stated.
Witnesses had stated 4 individuals in the cubicle were crushed by the truck.
Eight individuals on the ground were hurt. One suffered significant injury, and seven others had minor to moderate injuries, said Lee Swanson, a spokesman for the city’s Fire-Rescue Department.
Witnesses stated the GMC pickup truck with Texas license plates arrived at a vendor’s cubicle established for La Raza Run, a motorcycle ride that starts in downtown Los Angeles and ends with a celebration at the park. The crash happened steps away from a stage where a rockabilly band was performing.
On Sunday, mourners came to the park to lay flowers and candles and say prayers for the victims.
Tina Camarillo informed the San Diego Union-Tribune she and her daughter remained in a booth beside the one that was struck.
“To see such catastrophe in an immediate …,” she stated. “(The truck) fell and all I saw was darkness, the glass blew, the canopy fell on my head. My daughter was running to get my mommy. It was terrible.”
Iris Jimenez, 29, informed the newspaper she got out of the way in the nick of time.
“I saw the truck coming at me, and if I hadn’t run, I ‘d be dead,” Jimenez informed the newspaper. Her buddy, Pedro Sanchez, was among numerous guys who rushed to raise the pickup off the victims.
Photos from the scene reveal the truck’s front end folded and its hood popped open.
The park is below the bridge in a primarily Hispanic area in main San Diego.
