A man and his 16-year-old son who kept a drunken driver at the scene of a crash that fatally injured a 3-year-old boy in South Los Angeles were among five people honored Wednesday as “courageous citizens” by Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey.
Juan Vanegas, 42, and his teenage son, Christian, were lauded for rushing to the scene of the crash on 92nd Street near Figueroa Street on May 20, 2018, and keeping George Edward Milton Jr. of Gardena at the scene, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Milton had been behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Tahoe that veered off the road, struck the boy on the sidewalk and crashed into a nearby gate, authorities said. Milton then put the vehicle in reverse and ran over the toddler again, according to Deputy District Attorney Jessica Kronstadt. The boy, Eidan Cortez, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Milton pleaded no contest on Nov. 30 to one count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and was immediately sentenced to 12 years in state prison.
Also honored by the district attorney were:
— Mark Johnson, 59, of Los Angeles, who alerted security when he saw a woman being attacked in a Los Angeles grocery store parking lot on Sept. 17, 2017. Johnson subsequently distracted the assailant, Jonathan Alexander Alvarez, allowing the woman to break free and escape.
Alvarez was convicted Oct. 1, 2018, of one felony count of assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury and was sentenced to four years in state prison.
— Andrew Norman and Lauren Taylor, both 26 and from Los Angeles, who asked Hector Diaz to leave his ex-girlfriend’s apartment in Los Angeles after they heard him arguing with the woman on Dec. 2, 2015. Diaz subsequently fired a gun in their direction, striking Norman in a foot, but Norman managed to run after the gunman and help police to find him, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Diaz was sentenced to 26 years in state prison after being convicted in December 2017 of two counts each of assault with a firearm and felon in possession of a firearm and one count of felon in possession of ammunition.
“I admire the courage exhibited by these ordinary people who stepped up in the face of danger to help their neighbors in need,” the district attorney said at a ceremony hosted by the Rotary Club of Westchester. “I am also thankful for their persistence and dedication to helping my deputy district attorneys take violent offenders off our streets. Their actions helped us secure justice for our community.”