Police say the driver in a high-profile hit-and-run called them to confess not long after the wreck, according to newly filed court documents.
The deadly crash on Feb. 7 drew headlines across the region and sparked a hunt for the driver who allegedly sped through a stop sign and hit 54-year-old Lori Ann Carreon as she bicycled through the intersection of Second Street and Redondo Avenue.
A pair of search warrants detectives recently filed at Long Beach Superior Court give the clearest view of what happened next: The car involved in the crash was a rental, they wrote, and instead of staying at the scene, the driver drove back to his apartment in downtown Los Angeles.
The next day, the driver allegedly called Avis Car Rental to report that he was in a crash that damaged the car. Avis picked it up at 8:38 a.m. and towed it to their rental facility near Los Angeles International Airport, detectives wrote.
Hours later, at 3:08 p.m., the driver allegedly called a police dispatcher and confessed to the hit-and-run. 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.
Police identified the driver as 40-year-old Christopher Bryant.
Bryant, a former Long Beach City College Student, spoke to the Long Beach Post in 2024 for a profile. At the time, he was starting school at UCLA after attending classes at LBCC while homeless, eventually graduating with a 3.9 GPA. (The Post confirmed Bryant’s identity through jail records and his phone number, which was listed in the search warrant. He did not respond to attempts to contact him.)
After his arrest, Bryant was booked into jail on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, among other charges but was released the same day after posting bond for his $50,000 bail, jail records show.
Charges haven’t yet been filed. Police say the detectives on the case are working to submit their evidence to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration.
At Second and Redondo, there are now newly painted crosswalks after neighbors lamented the city’s lack of attention to the intersection, which they said had been a hazard for pedestrians for years.