A 43-year-old man was charged Thursday with a deadly police pursuit in Fountain Valley.
Timothy Bradford Cole II of Huntington Beach was charged with single counts of murder and evading a peace officer causing death, along with two counts of evading a peace officer causing serious bodily injury and a count of arson of an inhabited structure, all felonies. He also faces a sentencing enhancement for arson with the use of an acceleration device.
Three women sustained injuries, one fatally, around 10 p.m. Monday after Cole allegedly eluded officers, resulting in a collision in Fountain Valley. The victim who died was identified as 25-year-old Hong Ngoc Nguyen, a foreign exchange student from Vietnam.
The other two women, both Huntington Beach residents, were released from a hospital Wednesday.
“All three victims have been friends since they were in middle school while growing up in Vietnam,” police said in a statement.
The crash happened near Ellis Avenue and Magnolia Street, police said.
Cole allegedly doused a bush with lighter fluid and ignited it at a residence at 18252 Arches Court, police said. The residents managed to put the fire out before it damaged the home, police said.
Prosecutors allege in the criminal complaint that the arson “was carried out with planning, sophistication and professionalism, specifically preparing to commit the arson by filling a wine bottle with accelerant, going to the target house but parking on an adjacent street and walking on foot to the target house, wearing gloves and dumping the accelerant in a location likely to catch fire and possibly go unnoticed, then lighting the fire and thereafter disposing of the wine bottle and the gloves.”
Police later tracked down Cole’s vehicle, a white Dodge Ram truck, in a parking lot in Fountain Valley and conducted surveillance on it until the defendant got in and started driving away, refusing to pull over as police closed in, police said.
The defendant crashed into a BMW X3 at Ellis and Magnolia, police said.
Cole has a lengthy criminal history, according to court records.
He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug and possession of graffiti tools in December 2003. In December 2007, he pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats with a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury, dissuading a witness by force and solicitation to commit a crime with a sentencing enhancement for gang activity.