Last Updated on January 18, 2018 by CCAR Staff
POMONA — A 23-year-old Pomona SUV driver was arrested Wednesday for allegedly driving under the influence of marijuana during a collision just over a year ago that seriously injured a Pomona motorcycle officer.
The crash, involving a Ford Explorer, occurred about 6:35 a.m. on Jan. 10, 2017 at the intersection of Garey and Garfield Avenues, as the officer was responding to a hit-and-run crash that killed a pedestrian, authorities said.
“After a lengthy investigation, it was determined the driver of the Ford Explorer, identified as Pearce Bruyn, was at fault for the collision and determined to be driving under the influence of marijuana,” according to the California Highway Patrol, which investigated the crash.
A felony warrant for Bruyn’s arrest was issued on Jan. 9. He was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of a drug causing serious injuries.
Bruyn stopped at the scene following the crash.
Police said he was traveling south on Garey Avenue, approaching Garfield Avenue, and began to make a left turn at the intersection, directly in the path of Officer Trevor Stevenson, then a nine-year veteran of the Pomona police force, who had been riding north on Garey.
Stevenson, 32 at the time, was ejected from his motorcycle.
He suffered major head trauma and was airlifted to a hospital.
The fatal crash Stevenson was responding to occurred earlier that morning in the 2200 block of North Garey Avenue, according to the CHP.
The pedestrian, identified by the county coroner’s office as 60-year- old Charles Washington Jr., stepped off the west sidewalk of Garey and into the path of a southbound 2012 Toyota Corolla, authorities said.
Washington died at the scene. The CHP reported he was a transient in the Pomona area.
Bruyn was being held in lieu of $130,000 bail, according to sheriff’s inmate records.
