Last Updated on February 14, 2017 by CCAR Staff
RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> More than a year after a suspected drunken driver slammed into a patrol vehicle, killing a San Bernardino police officer, the 28-year-old driver has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next month, records show.
Archie Green III of Fontana was initially charged with gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol in the crash that killed Officer Bryce Hanes on Nov. 5, 2015. On Jan. 11, Green pleaded guilty to a charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, according to court records. He is expected to be back in West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga on March 10 for sentencing.
Hanes, a 40-year-old Redlands resident, had just dropped off an inmate at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga when police said Hanes’ vehicle was broadsided by a dark blue 2008 Dodge Charger driven by Green just after 2 a.m. Nov. 5, 2015, at Etiwanda Avenue and Fourth Street in Ontario.
The impact jammed the patrol vehicle into a traffic-light pole.
A witness told investigators that the Charger’s driver ran a red light and collided with Hanes’ vehicle. The police officer had a green light, according to the witness.
Hanes, a 12-year veteran of the San Bernardino Police Department, is remembered as a family man devoted to his department and community.
Green’s attorney, Ludlow Creary III, said after his client’s initial arraignment that Green was “devastated” by Hanes’ death. Creary also said Hanes was not wearing a seat belt the night of the fatal crash.
Last November, the San Bernardino Parks & Recreation Commission voted to name the park under construction at Ninth and E streets in honor of Hanes and another local figure. The park is named after Hanes, and the skate park within it is named after Jon Cole, a skater electrocuted in 2011.
