A seven-month-long Esondido police investigation that had officers poring through surveillance videos, phone records and forensic evidence led to the arrest of a 42-year-old driver in connection with a hit-and-run crash that left a pedestrian dead.
Police had quickly recovered a vehicle believed to be involved in the early morning Sept. 17 hit-and-run crash at the intersection of Mission Avenue and Broadway that killed Miguel Leonides Garcia, 58.
But they didn’t know who had been driving the Toyota Land Cruiser.
“This was a case where we had some witnesses who witnessed the collision, but there were no witnesses to the actual driver, so we had to go through a lot of surveillance video and did some forensic analysis of the vehicle, that kind of stuff,” said police Lt. Craig Miller. “I think we wrote more than a dozen warrants.”
According to police, Garcia was about 10 feet into the intersection, walking west on Mission inside a crosswalk — and crossing on a green light — when he was hit. He was heading to his pool construction job.
Miller said the driver of the Toyota was making a right turn on a green light when he struck the pedestrian and drove off. Another motorist told police he honked to try to get the Toyota driver’s attention before the crash, but the collision occurred anyway.
Early Wednesday, officers arrested Lair Marin Salas, an Escondido resident. He was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run and was being held in Vista jail on $50,000 bail.
“Investigators spent hundreds of hours investigating this crime,” Interim Chief of Police Ryan Banks said in a statement. “Through their expertise, attention to detail and analysis of the evidence, justice will be served for the victim’s family.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
