An SUV driver was in custody Tuesday on suspicion of the hit-and-run killing of a bicycle-riding restaurant worker in the early morning darkness in the San Fernando Valley town of Winnetka.
The SUV allegedly also struck a second bicycle rider, but that victim survived.
The crash was reported just before 1 a.m. last Wednesday on Winnetka Avenue near Gilmore Street, according to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division.
The cyclists were traveling north on Winnetka, en route home from their jobs at a Ventura Boulevard restaurant, when they were struck by a vehicle that kept going.
Victor Mainwal Jr., 47, whose home town was unknown, was arrested Friday and booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, the LAPD reported. He’s being held in lieu of $50,000 bail, according to the sheriff’s department.
One man died at a hospital and the other survived. The name of the fatally injured man was withheld, pending notification of his next-of-kin.
The death scene was near Pierce College just east of Reseda.
–City News Service