According to Orange County prosecutors, a Los Angeles police sergeant struck and killed a 19-year-old pedestrian while driving drunk and then failed to stop or call 911.
According to the Orange County district attorney’s office, Carlos Gonzalo Coronel, 40, is now facing criminal charges for DUI causing great bodily injury and hit-and-run resulting in death.
The crash killed Imanol Salvador Gonzalez, who prosecutors said was walking in the street in the early hours of February 1 when he was hit and left to “die in the street.”
Coronel “is accused of not stopping his truck to see what he hit,” prosecutors said in a statement. “He did not call 911. Two people on their way home from work that morning discovered Gonzalez’ body in the middle of Nisson Road.
Coronel, a Buena Park resident, was previously convicted of DUI in 2011, pleading no contest to DUI with alcohol or drugs, according to court records.
Coronel drove to his girlfriend’s house hours after being accused of killing Gonzalez with his pickup truck, according to prosecutors. When she drove him home the next day, he allegedly told her to avoid the scene of the hit-and-run. On the same day, he is accused of searching online to see if a fatal hit-and-run had been reported in the area, as well as driving past the Tustin Police Department’s crime scene where the hit-and-run was being investigated.
“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,” the prosecutor for Orange County, Todd Spitzer, said in a resignation letter. “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.”
It was unclear whether Coronel was still employed as an LAPD officer. The LAPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Orange County Superior Court records, Coronel was sentenced to three years probation, 80 hours of community service, and an alcohol program in 2011 after pleading no contest to DUI. After his arrest in the fatal hit-and-run in February, the case was reopened due to a probation violation. It appears that he was then sentenced to 30 days in prison.
Coronel faces a maximum sentence of six years and eight months if convicted on all counts, according to prosecutors.
