Neighbors Chase, Catch Driver in Alleged Hit-Run

NORTH HOLLYWOOD —  An allegedly drunk driver who ran a stop sign and crashed into a car made an attempt to run away, but a swarm of neighborhood residents chased him and a passenger and held them till police arrived, authorities said Monday.

Police arrested Jose Manuel Valles, 18, of San Fernando, after a group of men in the neighborhood found him hiding in the shrubbery about half a block from the scene of the accident Sunday night.

Valles, a 19-year-old passenger and another young man all began running from the intersection of Beck Avenue and Archwood Street after their truck slammed into the side of a Toyota and knocked it into two parked cars about 9:15 p.m., witnesses said. The driver of the Toyota, a 31-year-old woman returning from work, was treated at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills and released.

As residents began coming outside to see what had happened, Valles and the 19-year-old began running north on Beck Avenue, witnesses said. The other passenger fled in another direction, they said.

At that moment, something snapped in Fernando Marquez, 28.

“It just came out of my mind. I started yelling ‘Get them!’ ” said Marquez, a custodian in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Marquez and at least three other men began pursuing the two up the street. When the passenger looked over his shoulder and saw the growing mob behind him, he stopped on the sidewalk and surrendered, the pursuers said.

The pursuers found Valles in the bushes outside a home up the block.

“Everybody pitched in,” said Marquez. “It was great seeing that. It feels good.”

Monday morning, a tow truck visited the neighborhood of modest single-family homes and duplexes to haul away one of the two parked cars damaged in the accident--a 1987 Hyundai Excel that Marquez’s father-in-law purchased a year ago. He said his father-in-law’s insurance policy expired earlier this month.

Several residents said the post-wreck pursuit marked the latest cooperation among neighbors, who in the last year have also united to work with police in forcing out members of Los Angeles’ notorious 18th Street gang, who vandalized nearby homes.

Others said Sunday’s accident underscored the need for a stop sign on Beck Avenue. Although there are stop signs on Archwood--which Valles allegedly ignored--cars heading north or south on Beck sometimes speed, residents said. Department of Transportation officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

If there had been a stop sign on Beck, Marquez said, “It would’ve given her [the Toyota driver] a chance to see who was coming.”

Witnesses said Valles’ truck had been racing another car on Archwood just before it reached the intersection. Police said Valles had a blood alcohol content of nearly .24%, three times the legal definition of drunk, at the time of the crash. But because he has no prior record and the victim was not seriously injured, he probably will face misdemeanor charges of DUI and hit and run, police said.

Although authorities expressed thanks to the neighbors who captured Valles, they cautioned that it can be dangerous for civilians to chase criminal suspects.

“We’d like people to help,” said Los Angeles Police Det. William Aurand, “but it’d probably be better to just call [the police] and say, ‘He’s in the bushes.’ ”