Octavio Montano Islas id as suspect hit and run driver that crashed through Long Beach home killing 3 year old girl and her dad before fleeing scene on foot.
The driver of a pickup truck that slammed through the walls of a Long Beach apartment in California last week, killing a 3 year old girl and her 42 year old father has been identified after the man fleeing the scene on foot.
Octavio Montano Islas, 24, was allegedly driving a 2014 Ram 1500 pickup truck northbound on Rose Avenue, near East Artesia Boulevard, about 10 p.m. on March 1 when the truck crashed into an apartment building, killing Jose Palacios Gonzalez and the man’s 3 year old daughter, Samantha Palacios, the Long Beach Police Department said.
The father died at the scene, while the 3 year old Samantha was taken to a hospital, where she later died. At the time of the crash both father and daughter were pinned underneath the truck as the girl’s mother desperately screamed for help.
The vehicle was reported traveling at high speeds according to NBC Los Angeles. Witnesses said the truck driver appeared to have been at a nearby bar before the crash.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office issued a warrant for Islas’ arrest on suspicion of two counts of felony manslaughter, one count of felony driving under the influence, and one count of felony hit and run the LA Times reported.
‘Help, help me, please, my baby,’
Neighbor Neidi Moran heard the sounds of the crash and the mother’s screams.
‘The mother of the baby, she say, ‘Help, help me, please, my baby,” Moran told NBC Los Angeles last week.
‘I have a granddaughter that’s almost the same age and that’s what hurts me the most because that little girl just starting living and to lose her life like that and to a person who did that not stay at the scene and just run away? That breaks my heart,’ another neighbor, Veronica Quezada, told the NBC Los Angeles.
Family members have launched a GoFundMe to help Jose’s wife and Samatha’s mother with funeral costs. The father also leaves behind a 15-year-old son or stepson.
Authorities as of Friday had yet to arrest Octavio Montano Islas.
