By: C. Harold Pierce and Katie Porter
Safety officers identified and helped police catch the driver
Santa Ana Police arrested a second driver that struck a 14-year-old girl on suspicion of felony hit and run Wednesday in the campus parking lot.
Santa Ana College student Amanda Aie Sananikone was picked up by police in Parking Lot 6 south of Phillips Hall at about 4 p.m. when campus safety officers saw her car entering the college from Bristol Street.
Safety officers were on the lookout for Sananikone’s car after identifying it from security footage. Around the same time Wednesday, two SAC officers were waiting for her. They confronted the suspect in her car and asked her to wait for police. She complied, Wooley said.
Safety officers blocked her car with a golf cart until police arrived about 10 minutes later, Wooley said.
“They came when we had bird in hand,” District Safety and Security Supervisor Lt. James Wooley said.
Campus security videos show the girl crossing several lanes of traffic on Bristol and 17th Streets against a red light Monday at about 4 p.m. A red truck clipped the girl, launching her into the outside lane where she was hit head-on by a black Cadillac driven by Sananikone.
“We heard a crack. That’s how hard it hit her,” said SAC student Fernando Coronel. The driver appeared to slow down for a moment near the bus stop then accelerated away, leaving the scene, Coronel said.
Moments after the accident, the first suspect was arrested on suspicion of felony hit and run and driving without a license.
Adan Camacho, 32, was heading south on Bristol Street in a red Nissan Titan when he struck a girl witnesses say appeared to be jaywalking.
Sananikone parked her car and tended to the victim, but did not tell responding officers of her role in the crash.
At the scene, witnesses said that only Camacho was involved. It wasn’t until late Monday that officers saw footage revealing a second hit and run.
The two suspects would not have been charged had they stayed, police said, because the girl was crossing against a red light.
The pedestrian was transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital with leg injuries and released the next day.
Related Stories: Police Search For Hit-and-Run Driver
Girl Struck by Truck Near Campus
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