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Imperial Beach woman arrested in deadly hit and run

An Imperial Beach woman was behind bars Tuesday for allegedly fleeing after the SUV she was driving collided with a motorcycle on a Chula Vista thoroughfare, killing the rider.

SANTEE (NEWS 8 / CNS) - An Imperial Beach woman was behind bars Tuesday for allegedly fleeing after the SUV she was driving collided with a motorcycle on a Chula Vista thoroughfare, killing the rider.

Tina Marie Murray, 46, was arrested late Monday afternoon in connection with the death three weeks ago of 30-year-old Pablo Rosa-Velez near Otay Valley Regional Park, according to police. She was booked into Las Colinas women's jail in Santee and was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Mary Rosa-Velez is the victim’s sister. “Lock her up for a long time.”

Rosa-Velez said so many emotions came at her when she saw the woman charged with killing her brother in a deadly hit and run.

Pablo was riding to the east in the 2400 block of Main Street when a 2000 Ford Explorer pulled out of a commercial parking lot directly in his path about 2:15 p.m. on July 3, Lt. Eric Thunberg said.

The motorcycle struck the driver's side of the SUV, fatally injuring Pablo. The victim, who worked as a sandblaster at General Dynamics NASSCO in Barrio Logan, died at the scene of the crash.

“I wanted to just jump up and grab her and tell her and ask her why she did it. What she thought at the moment that she killed him? Why didn’t she stop to do something? Why did she run?” she said.

The driver of the Explorer, later identified as Murray, briefly pulled to a stop following the collision, then fled to the west, Thunberg alleged.

Three days later, officers found the SUV parked in the 1200 block of West Frontage Road, near the south end of San Diego Harbor, and impounded it.

“It’s still very hard knowing that my brother is not going to be here anymore. Nothing is going to bring him back. She’s not going to bring him back. The laws are not going to bring him back,” she said.

The vehicle does not belong to Murray, but the nature of her relationship with the registered owner was unclear, the lieutenant said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the Pabo Rosa-Velez. 

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