A 70-year-old Hanford man was struck and killed while police say the driver who hit him fled, then came back to the scene briefly only to drive off again. Hanford police arrested 26-year-old Bryan Antonio Gomez on Monday in connection with the death of Ronald Torres, whose body was found near Leland Way and 9 1/4 Avenue, not far from Hamilton Elementary School.
Investigators determined the crash happened Sunday between 6:20 and 6:40 a.m., according to ABC30. Police did not receive a report of a person lying in the road until around 8:30 a.m., when officers arrived and found Torres dead with injuries consistent with being struck by a vehicle. The outlet reported that no other vehicles were in the area at the time, and that the suspect vehicle left the scene without stopping.
That two-hour gap between the crash and the first call for help became a central detail in the investigation. Per YourCentralValley.com, Gomez, who police say was driving without a license, allegedly fled the scene and left Torres in the road for two hours before anyone called for help. Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators reportedly showed Gomez briefly returning to the scene a few minutes after the collision, only to leave again.
Witnesses on Harrison Avenue Pointed Police to a Suspect
The break in the case came after investigators followed evidence to a home in the 2000 block of Harrison Avenue, west of Hamilton Elementary. Residents there helped officers identify Gomez as the driver, according to the same report from the central valley outlet. That tip, combined with witness statements and the surveillance video, allowed investigators to zero in on a suspect within a day of the crash.
Detectives tracked Gomez down at his workplace near Highway 43 and Lansing Avenue. Following an interview, officers placed him under arrest, the station's report states. He directed investigators to a home in Armona, where they recovered the vehicle believed to have struck Torres, according to KMPH, which described it as a 2007 Toyota RAV4 with damage consistent with the collision.
Accounts of the vehicle's exact description vary slightly. ABC30 reported that authorities had been searching for a 2007 silver Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage, while GV Wire described the vehicle sought by investigators as a silver 2006-2008 Toyota RAV4 believed to have moderate front-end damage. Gomez was booked into Kings County Jail on charges of felony hit-and-run resulting in death and vehicular manslaughter, ABC30 reported.
A String of Fatal Hit-and-Runs Across the Central Valley
Torres's death is the latest in a run of fatal hit-and-runs across the region this month. A 38-year-old Lemoore man was killed in a separate Hanford-area hit-and-run involving a Kia, with officers called to Kent Avenue near 16th Avenue just before 4 a.m. on a Wednesday, per YourCentralValley.com. In that case, the driver fled on foot and abandoned the car on 16th Avenue south of Jersey Avenue.
Further south, Bakersfield police responded to a pedestrian-involved crash at Olympia Drive and Gallup Drive around 12:06 p.m. on Sunday, according to BakersfieldNow. Police there said a driver struck and killed a pedestrian before fleeing in a black Dodge Challenger, later found abandoned in a nearby neighborhood. That suspect, identified as 39-year-old Calvin Dugan, was taken into custody at his home without incident.
For Hanford families living near Hamilton Elementary, the crash has put a spotlight on a stretch of road already familiar to parents and children walking to school. Torres, a longtime resident of the city, was found just blocks from the campus. Police have not released additional details about where Gomez's case stands beyond the booking into Kings County Jail.
