Four of five youthful miscreants between the ages of 13 and 19 who started the evening of June 27 with a drunken joy ride involving a stolen 2018 Hyundai ended up dead in Upland when the driver of the car fled from a sheriff’s deputy on patrol in Rancho Cucamonga and slammed into another vehicle while traveling at a high rate of speed early this morning.
A fifth youth, the youngest of those in the car, survived but is hospitalized in severe but stable condition. His survival is anticipated and he may be able to shed some light on what transpired.
It is unknown how the ill-fated misdoers were able to defeat the security mechanism on the black 2018 Hyundai when it was seized in Fontana. One of the car’s occupants had a firearm in his possession, leading to speculation that the vehicle may have been taken at gunpoint, such that the now deceased driver had the short-lived and now unfortunate advantage of having the car’s key.
Based upon limited descriptions available, it appears the driver was severely intoxicated. After leaving Fontana, the car and its occupants traveled west where at 1:48 a.m. two San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies on patrol in Rancho Cucamonga spotted the vehicle, which was being driven erratically.
The sheriff’s department serves as the contract law enforcement agency, i.e., the police department, in the City of Rancho Cucamonga.
At 1:50 a.m., the sheriff’s patrol car was positioned vehicle behind the Hyundai near the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Archibald Avenue and its lights and siren were activated. At that point the driver of the Hyundai sedan went into flight mode, achieving a high rate of speed, which the pursuing deputy at the wheel prudently did not match. The Hyundai temporarily disappeared from the pursuing deputy’s field of vision.
A call for assistance summoned another patrol car as well as the Ontario Police Department’s helicopter, which in short order located the fleeing vehicle. Within four minutes, the Hyundai was westbound on Baseline Road headed into Upland.
In Upland Baseline is identified as 16th Street.
With two sheriff’s vehicles in pursuit, the Hyundai streaked past the cross streets of Campus Avenue and Euclid Avenue and had achieved an estimated speed approaching 120 miles an hour when it passed San Antonio Avenue.
At 16th Street and Mountain Avenue it slammed into a white 2010 Ford Mustang, careening from there at what was yet an estimated 60 to 70 miles an hour into an electrical pole, at which point the Hyundai exploded into fire and split into three sections, ejecting all five occupants.
At least three of those in the car died upon impact or shortly after at the scene of the wreck. The fourth died a short time later.
One passenger, who was thrown entirely clear and may have landed on a grass parkway, survived. His age was given as 13.
One of the dead was identified as Jesus Guillen, 16 of Fontana.
The Upland police department is handling the crash investigation.
The two occupants of the Mustang, described as a 35-year-old male and 21-year-old female from Ontario, were shaken up but not severely injured in the crash. They were examined at a hospital as a precaution, authorities said.
-Mark Gutglueck