A tense scene unfolded at the Long Beach courthouse on Wednesday when grieving friends confronted the man accused of killing a bicyclist in a high-profile hit-and-run.
The suspect, 40-year-old Christopher Bryant, appeared before a judge for the first time to face three felonies: vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, hit-and-run resulting in death and reckless driving. Prosecutors allege he sped through a stop sign at Second Street and Redondo Avenue on Feb. 7, killing 54-year-old Lori Ann Carreon as she rode back to her Bluff Park home.
About 20 of Carreon’s friends and family members packed the courtroom Wednesday where Bryant pleaded not guilty to the charges, which could land him in prison for a maximum of 16 years.
After the hearing, some followed Bryant out of the courtroom. In the hallway, one yelled, “You murdered my best friend.”
Others waited by the courthouse’s entrance until a sheriff’s deputy escorted Bryant past them and to his ride.
Christian Gonzalez, Carreon’s nephew, took issue with Bryant being released on $50,000 bail.
“It’s not fair that he gets to walk free,” he said. Carreon was the reason Gonzalez joined track and field as a child, he said. Gonzalez attended the same high school as her and attempted to break her records in the 100-meter and 200-meter events, but “she was too fast.”
After the crash, Gonzalez said he’s found himself listening to old voicemails from her “just to hear her voice.”
Friends said Carreon was a kind-hearted occupational therapist who worked with school-age children. She lived less than a block away from where she died.
After hitting her, Bryant drove back to his apartment in downtown Los Angeles, police allege in court documents.
The next day, they said, he called a police dispatcher and confessed. During the conversation, he told the dispatcher that “he was calling to turn himself in with an attorney,” according to detectives.
Three days later, he turned himself in at LBPD headquarters, detectives wrote. There, they seized his cell phone and later filed the search warrants to obtain phone records and GPS data that could show his movements and potential communications after the crash.