SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A hit-and-run car crash that may have been intentional left a pedestrian dead in a City Heights alley Wednesday, authorities said.
Patrol officers responding to a report that a vehicle had struck a woman in the access road off the 4100 block of Wilson Avenue found the victim underneath an unoccupied sedan shortly after 10 a.m., suffering from extensive injuries to her upper body, according to San Diego police.
The pedestrian died at the scene, despite medics' attempts to keep her alive. She remained unidentified in the late afternoon.
Witness statements led investigators to suspect that the driver ran down the woman on purpose, Lt. Manny Del Toro said.
"The homicide unit was called to investigate the incident, since it appears the vehicle was used as a weapon to kill the victim,'' the lieutenant
said.
A confrontation of some sort may have precipitated the crime, Del Toro told reporters.
After the pedestrian was struck, a woman who may have been covered in blood ran off to the south along with two young men. It was unclear which of
them might have been the driver or if all three had been in the vehicle when the traffic fatality occurred.
The alley was expected to remain closed into the evening hours as detectives gather physical evidence and statements from area residents, Del Toro said.