A Latina single mother of three who was driving to a concert by the band Los Temerarios on Thursday night is now hospitalized in critical condition following a police chase that led to a brutal accident in South Los Angeles.
Yolanda Reyna's car was hit by the vehicle of two suspects who were fleeing from the police, her daughter Julisa Mercado Reyna explained in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
Several children in critical condition after the accident of a bus with migrants in Panama
Feb 16, 202300:38
"Unfortunately, this was the negligence of both the Los Angeles Police Department and the two suspects," the 25-year-old daughter said at the hospital where her mother is in an induced coma.
[Bus-truck crash leaves six dead in New York]
"If there's any way we can get the word out to stop this kind of thing, because it's innocent lives," he said.
The chase began around 7:40 p.m. when officers on patrol with the 77th Division near Florence Avenue and Main Street came across a stolen black GMC pickup truck, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
They tried to stop the vehicle but "the suspect fled at high speed," it added.
The chase lasted just over a minute and ended when the driver ran a red light at Gage Avenue and San Pedro Street, striking a sedan vehicle, police said.
Two suspects, including the 40-year-old driver, were arrested.
Police chase in Los Angeles leaves two victims and a family asking for answers
Feb 1, 202302:50
Reyna had gone to pick up a friend to go to the concert in Inglewood, her daughter explained, to whom the other woman phoned at 8 p.m. to ask why her mother had not arrived.
[Memphis police dismantle SCORPION unit]
The daughter searched for her location using her cell phone and located her at Gage and San Pedro, checking that she was not moving, so she ran to the scene, where police said she had been taken to the hospital.
Mercado Reyna explained that her mother has a brain hemorrhage and broken bones.
"She's fighting so hard," he explained, "it breaks my heart to see her like this, but I keep the faith and I believe in God and I know my mom is going to get through this. She's been through everything in her life and I have her strength so I believe it's going to get ahead."
Frustration and concern in Ohio over the consequences and response to the train accident
Feb 16, 202303:25
Reyna is a "dedicated mother," Mercado Reyna said.
One of her sons had soccer practice that day, but it was canceled and the woman decided at the last minute to go to the concert, according to her daughter.
Just the day before, the family celebrated the 22nd birthday of their other son.
[A snowstorm causes a multiple accident in Wisconsin and leaves about thirty injured]
Reyna's family has started a campaign to raise funds for medical expenses.
There they say that Reyna "fights for her life" from her.
"She is a single mother and has always worked hard to fight for the three of us," said Mercado Reyna.
"I am the oldest. Now I have the responsibility to be strong for my younger brothers."
A car crash into a bar in New York leaves more than 20 injured
Jan 4, 202300:16
The crash came just hours after another Los Angeles police chase ended in an accident that killed a 19-year-old student at Northridge State University when robbery suspects collided with the young man's car.
Two weeks earlier, two people were killed when a black Toyota Tacoma pickup truck that had been reported stolen crashed into a parked Honda Civic in Panorama City.
With information from the
LA Times
,
NBC Los Angeles
, and
Fox News