A Los Angeles Police Department sergeant is facing multiple felony charges after he allegedly drove after drinking and fatally struck a man in Tustin before fleeing the scene.
Carlos Gonzalo Coronel, a 40-year-old Buena Park resident, faces felony charges of driving under the influence of alcohol causing great bodily injury and hit-and-run with permanent injury or death, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
He also faces a felony enhancement for great bodily injury.
On Feb. 1, Coronel was driving to his girlfriend’s home after “a night of drinking with his brother-in-law” when he hit Imanol Salvador Gonzalez, who was walking in the street near the intersection of Nisson Road and Del Amo Avenue, the OCDA said.
Coronel allegedly didn’t stop, instead continuing on to his girlfriend’s home while the 19-year-old Gonzalez was left to die in the street.
Two others found Gonzalez in the street and called police, as Coronel allegedly never called 911, “despite significant front-end damage to his” black Chevrolet Silverado pickup.
Coronel’s girlfriend had to drive him back to his Buena Park home, though he told her to turn around and avoid Nisson Road where Gonzalez had been hit, prosecutors said.
When his girlfriend drove Coronel back to his Buena Park home, Coronel is also accused of instructing his girlfriend to turn around to avoid Nisson Road, the location where Gonzalez had been hit.
“In the hours after Gonzalez was killed, Coronel is also accused of searching the Internet to see if there had been a fatal hit and run in Tustin,” the release said.
“Our law enforcement officers are entrusted with the highest level of public trust, and it is unconscionable that an officer who swore an oath to protect and serve would leave a man to die in the street after hitting him while driving under the influence of alcohol,” said District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Imanol was loved by his family, and he did not deserve to have his story end lying in the middle of a dark Tustin street alone while the police officer who hit him drove away because his self-preservation was more important than a human life.”
Coronel, who did not appear in a search of jail records, is due to appear at the Central Justice Center on June 27.
If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 6 years, 8 months in state prison.
