A 20-year-old man was charged with two counts of murder on Wednesday, Nov. 8, after Los Angeles police accused him of being drunk while driving a luxury car that plowed into another vehicle in Northridge over the weekend, killing an off-duty officer and his passenger.
Brian David Olivarez was arrested after he was treated in a hospital following the early morning crash on Saturday, Nov. 4, at Roscoe Boulevard and Lindley Avenue, booking records showed.
Los Angeles police accused Olivarez of driving his black BMW at around 100 miles per hour when he slammed into the side of a white Infiniti begin driven by Darrell Cunningham, the off-duty LAPD officer.
Both Cunningham and Jorge Soriano, 31, died at the scene. Another passenger in the car, identified as an off-duty San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy, was injured.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore said Saturday that the three victims were longtime friends.
A man in Olivarez’s BWM was also injured.
Olivarez was booked on more than $4 million bail.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office charged Olivarez with two counts of murder, two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and one count of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Cunningham’s family said the officer had two children, 3 and 5 years old.
Chief Michel Moore said Cunningham’s fellow officers from LAPD’s West LA division said their friend would “light up a room” when he entered.
“This hurts,” Moore said.
The chief said Olivarez was driving at an “outrageous speed” at the time of the crash.
“Just a total, total disregard for others,” he said.
Booking records showed Olivarez was arrested earlier this year in LAPD’s Topanga Division on the west side of the Valley for a suspected felony.
Officials at the Hall of Justice in Downtown L.A. on Thursday said the earlier arrest was over a possible robbery. A deputy district attorney said at a news conference that Olivarez was not believed to have…
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