Officer hurt in Pomona crash while responding to fatal hit-and-run

It was one awful thing after another.

Around 6:35 a.m. Tuesday, a Pomona police officer was critically hurt in a crash at Geary and Garfield avenues. It happened while he was heading to another accident in which a pedestrian was killed, just a few minutes and eight blocks apart.

The coroner identified the pedestrian as a 60-year-old transient named Charles Washington. Washington's friend Munuar Ali said Washington would cross the street to McDonald's each morning around 6:30 a.m. to get a cup of coffee.

He described the man as "very nice with good manners."

"He was a very bright person," Ali said.

Authorities said the man who hit Washington fled after the collision but later returned to say he was the driver. According to California Highway Patrol, even though he came back, the mere fact he did not stay at the scene makes still makes it a felony hit-and-run.

"I'm not sure how that's going to work with the courts, but at least it shows he's willing to come forward and turn himself in," CHP Officer Rodrigo Jimenez said.

Jimenez said he knew the 32-year-old motorcycle officer hurt in the accident. They worked together on a school program called "Every 15 Minutes" in which mock accidents were dramatized to show what can happen during DUI's or other incidents that cause wrecks.

Ironically, the officer that was responding to the hit-and-run now remains hospitalized with major injuries because of a crash.

"It could happen to anyone one of us at any given moment," Jimenez said. "And we hope that we can rely on our training that these things do not happen to us."

In the hit-and-run, the driver of the Toyota that hit Washington is being questioned by investigators. The 22-year-old driver that collided with the officer is also being questioned.
