Hawthorne police arrested 23-year-old Alfredo Perez Davila yesterday afternoon on suspicion of murder, following a deadly crash suspected to be caused by street racing. The crash occurred on Crenshaw Boulevard, close to its intersection with 131st Street.
Surveillance video (viewable here or below) shows two cars weaving through traffic on the street until one of the cars careens across the center divider, becomes airborne, and crashes down on top of a Honda CR-V traveling on the opposite side of the street.
The driver of the Honda, identified only as a 35-year-old man, was killed instantly, crushed beneath Davila’s Chevrolet Cobalt.
Along with Davila, a driver in a red Chevrolet Camaro was also racing. Following the crash, the red Camaro fled north along Crenshaw. Investigators haven’t yet found the owner of the second car.
Police attribute the crash to reckless behavior, specifically racing along a road during congested mid-day traffic, according to KABC.
This death is the latest in a long chain of street racing-related fatalities. Earlier this January, a driver who killed two during an illegal street race in Chatsworth last year was sentenced to 12 years in state prison. Deaths over the past year have also been reported in Rancho Cucamonga, Gardena, and the City of Commerce.
“There are places to legally race,” the Hawthorne Police Department said in a Facebook post with video of the crash. “The streets where all our families drive is not one of them!”
