A Los Angeles Police Department sergeant is facing multiple felony charges for allegedly driving drunk and fatally striking a man in Tustin before fleeing the scene.
Carlos Gonzalo Coronel, a 40-year-old Buena Park resident, is charged with felony driving under the influence of alcohol causing great bodily injury and hit-and-run with permanent injury or death, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
He is also facing a felony enhancement for great bodily injury.
On February 1, Coronel was driving to his girlfriend’s house after “a night of drinking with his brother-in-law” when he collided with Imanol Salvador Gonzalez, who was walking in the street near the intersection of Nisson Road and Del Amo Avenue, according to the OCDA.
Coronel allegedly did not stop, instead continuing on to his girlfriend’s home, leaving the 19-year-old Gonzalez to die on the street.
Coronel allegedly never called 911, “despite significant front-end damage to his” black Chevrolet Silverado pickup. Two others discovered Gonzalez in the street and called police.
Coronel’s girlfriend had to drive him back to his Buena Park home, but he told her to turn around and avoid Nisson Road, where Gonzalez was hit, according to prosecutors.
When his girlfriend drove Coronel back to his Buena Park home, he is accused of instructing her to turn around to avoid Nisson Road, where Gonzalez was 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,” according to a release.
“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 district attorney, Todd Spitzer, said. “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 scheduled to appear at the Central Justice Center on June 27.
If convicted on all counts, he faces up to six years and eight months in state prison.
