Police say they’ve arrested a driver suspected of fleeing a crash that killed a 78-year-old woman more than a year ago at a Bixby Knolls intersection.
At about 4:45 p.m. on Dec. 26, 2024, a Toyota Avalon was headed eastbound on San Antonio Drive when it ran a red light at California Avenue and collided with another vehicle, according to Long Beach police.
The Avalon’s driver briefly got out of his car, then got back in and fled the scene, police said.
The victim, 78-year-old Nikki Rash, declined medical treatment at the scene but took herself to a hospital a few hours later, police said. More than a week after the crash, she succumbed to her injuries.
Police said a security camera caught an image of the damaged Avalon near the scene, and investigators tracked it back to 59-year-old Mario Jesus Escobar Acosta, of Woodland, a city near Sacramento.
On Monday, U.S. Marshals arrested Escobar Acosta in Sacramento on suspicion of felony hit-and-run causing deadly injury and vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence.
He was booked into Long Beach jail on Tuesday, where he was being held on $5,000 bail.