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News & ArtsThursday, June 7, 2012
News Arrest Made in Hit-and-Run Death of Cyclist Mike Wang
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 2:10 PM
In a press conference this morning, the Seattle Police Department announced it had made an arrest in the hit-and-run crime that killed Mike Wang last July. Police have taken Erlin Garcia-Reyes, 28 of Normandy Park, into custody.
Last July, when word of Mike Wang’s death hit our community, all of us were deeply shaken. Mr. Wang had been a Cascade Bicycle Club member, and he rode in our annual Commute Challenge event last May. Many of you are getting ready to celebrate at the 2012 Group Health Commute Challenge wrap-party tonight. Mike was a “one-hundred-percenter” in 2011, meaning he made all of his commutes to work by bike. And by all accounts he was a man who loved riding his bike from his home in Shoreline to his office in South Lake Union....
While we hope announcements like this never need to be made again, we hope it will lead to some closure. We are grateful to the Seattle Police Department for their persistent detective work, for not giving up, and for bringing a criminal to justice. It took ten months of “good old-fashioned police work,” according Detective Tom Bacon who was working the investigation. The police said that help from the community made a difference and that a series of events and information led the investigative team to Mr. Garcia-Reyes. To those who came forward and spoke up: Thank you.
1
How they found him to make the arrest is such a great story. Here's the Times link from within the CBC blog post.
3
I will never understand how someone can run someone over - a HUMAN BEING and keep on driving. I hope he gets life. That would be appropriate. You mow someone down with your car and kill them and go about living your life? You deserve life in prison.
5
Finally. This man is probably guilty of criminally negligent manslaughter. Also, the manner in which he was caught is dreadfully illuminating.
7
@5 It doesn't illuminate what, if any, work the cops did. Judging from the article, it looks like blind luck. That doesn't mean they *didn't* do anything. It's just that they're not telling.
8
@1, 5: "Police declined to say how detectives connected Garcia-Reyes to the fatal accident."
what @7 said.
what @7 said.
10
Yeah, this guy sure seems like a fine, upstanding, pillar of the community. I hope he becomes a pillar in prison, where he rots for a very, very, very long time.
12
I was talking about the misadventures that led to his arrest, not what connected him to the Wang death. I'll lay it out for you:
1. Drunk friend crashes into gas station.
2. He gets in driver seat.
3. Dump the car.
4. Head home.
5. Report car stolen.
I found this sequence of events to be illuminating in reference to his character. I guess I wasn't super clear on that.
1. Drunk friend crashes into gas station.
2. He gets in driver seat.
3. Dump the car.
4. Head home.
5. Report car stolen.
I found this sequence of events to be illuminating in reference to his character. I guess I wasn't super clear on that.
13
@5: Vehicular homicide (RCW 46.61.520), actually. When Mike Wang was killed, the law puts the penalty at somewhere between 30 - 40 months depending on the offender's prior convictions. The new law -- partially driven by cases like Mike's -- increases the sentencing range to around 6-1/2 to 8-1/2 years.
Considering at least 1/3 good time, even our new, "harsher" law means something like 5 years of jail for murdering someone with your vehicle, then running away like a bitch.
So tell me again that there's a war on cars.
Considering at least 1/3 good time, even our new, "harsher" law means something like 5 years of jail for murdering someone with your vehicle, then running away like a bitch.
So tell me again that there's a war on cars.
17
So glad to hear that an arrest was made in this case. I hope he gets a just sentence for his crime (i.e., *word*, @10).
20
I simply fail to understand how vehicular homicide is less worthy of punishment than homicide by gun or knife is. Certainly there wasn't intent in this case, but still ...
21
That article Gus links says the same guy was involved in another hit and run right in my old neighborhood. What a fucker. Hope he gets the max and then some.
22
@20,
What's the punishment if a gun goes off accidentally and kills someone? Or if the gun owner shoots in a random direction (without intent to harm or kill) and the bullet kills someone? My guess is that the punishment even for the latter crime isn't much more severe than for vehicular manslaughter.
Remember that asshole who left his gun unprotected and with the safety off in his car with his young children (ultimately killing his daughter)? He's facing a few years, max.
What's the punishment if a gun goes off accidentally and kills someone? Or if the gun owner shoots in a random direction (without intent to harm or kill) and the bullet kills someone? My guess is that the punishment even for the latter crime isn't much more severe than for vehicular manslaughter.
Remember that asshole who left his gun unprotected and with the safety off in his car with his young children (ultimately killing his daughter)? He's facing a few years, max.
23
@12 I agree, it illuminates what a fucking douchebag this guy is. I think you'd admit that we could infer his douche-bagginess simply by killing a cyclist and running away.
24
@22, Great example. Except in order for it to work, you would have to shoot randomly into a crowd of people.
Its still very easy in most states to kill someone with a vehicle and walk. Its why they get called "accidents" and they are rarely disputed.
driving isn't even a right.
Highlight of the day, during sentencing for killing a man while driving and texting, the perp was texting while the judge was speaking. His penalty was 2 years. ( off in 9mo with parole)
sadly nothing is going to change soon.
https://www.google.com/search?sugexp=&q=…
Its still very easy in most states to kill someone with a vehicle and walk. Its why they get called "accidents" and they are rarely disputed.
driving isn't even a right.
Highlight of the day, during sentencing for killing a man while driving and texting, the perp was texting while the judge was speaking. His penalty was 2 years. ( off in 9mo with parole)
sadly nothing is going to change soon.
https://www.google.com/search?sugexp=&q=…
25
I wonder if this guy was the first mexican to even have insurance so the family can make a claim?
26
All he has do do is pull the Dr. James Corasanti defense, "I didn't know I hit him," and boom declared innocent because it was an "accident."
Like all traffic "accidents" they should actually be called "collisions" are quite avoidable. But selfish Americans love having their freedom to pilot around thousand pound death machines with minimal training at the expense of others.
Like all traffic "accidents" they should actually be called "collisions" are quite avoidable. But selfish Americans love having their freedom to pilot around thousand pound death machines with minimal training at the expense of others.
28
@26: Hah! What training? They don't expect training. They expect testing. And the bare minimum of testing at that. Because *everyone* should be allowed to drive.
Germany, on the other hand, has an expectation of training.
Germany, on the other hand, has an expectation of training.
29
Also, someone commented that Slog isn't a hotbed for sympathy for cyclists, but I have yet to see (and actually, to be honest, totally expected, but not necessarily from this site) the usual flame war surrounding how cyclists should stay the fuck off the road, and how the guy deserved to die.
This thread has been a paragon of decency in comparison to what I've come to expect from the internet.
This thread has been a paragon of decency in comparison to what I've come to expect from the internet.
31
Will Slog fight to stop the killers deportation after he serves his time? His right to get a license and drive uninsured?
32
@27: Luck favors the prepared. Many years ago there was a mysterious string of thefts of RAM from university computers back when RAM prices were very very high. There was quite a tizzy about it: multistate, went on for months. Happened so often it was assumed to be a gang. Catching the guy was a pain (literally: he smacked the police chasing him with a monkey wrench).
When found it turns out the mystery thief had a record, had done time for near-identical thefts earlier and nobody had followed up on that.
Something like the following likely happened here:
Someone at Seattle PD checked if he fit earlier similar unsolved crimes and someone bothered to follow up on it , apparently got significant info from him in an interview and now they have enough for an arrest.
That's all very much in the category of "good old fashioned police work".
When found it turns out the mystery thief had a record, had done time for near-identical thefts earlier and nobody had followed up on that.
Something like the following likely happened here:
Someone at Seattle PD checked if he fit earlier similar unsolved crimes and someone bothered to follow up on it , apparently got significant info from him in an interview and now they have enough for an arrest.
That's all very much in the category of "good old fashioned police work".
33
TVDinner@18:
Sorry, emor...did sound like my missive was directed at you. Definitely not the intent...
Just really pissed off. ;-)
@13: I don't think emor would ever tell you there's a war on cars.
Sorry, emor...did sound like my missive was directed at you. Definitely not the intent...
Just really pissed off. ;-)
34
If you're a prominent doctor who was texting while drunk and kill an 18 year old skateboarder in New York you get cleared of all charges. He said he didn't know he hit a human. http://www.buffalonews.com/topics/dr-jam…
35
@31 Any documentation that this guy is illegal, racist troll? I mean aside from your opinion based on his last name.
36
@35 Common sense (how many honduran chefs who came to the US 5 yrs ago do you know who got visas?) and the fact ICE Put a hold on him today.
Thanks for playing. Don't worry, when he's released in 2 yrs you can fight to stop his deportation.
Thanks for playing. Don't worry, when he's released in 2 yrs you can fight to stop his deportation.
37
You can also guarantee he had no insurance so Wang's family will get nothing for their loss....
Updated Jun 8, 2012 - 3:18 pm
Suspect in Seattle fatal hit and run of bicyclist is illegal alien
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has requested a retainer on the man arrested in the July 2011 fatal hit and run of a bicyclist in Seattle.
Erlin Garcia Reyes, 28, of Normandy Park, was arrested for felony hit and run on Wednesday.
ICE officials have confirmed to 97.3 KIRO-FM that Garcia-Reyes is in the country illegally.
Police believe Reyes was the driver of an SUV that fatally struck and killed 44-year-old Michael Wang on July 28, 2011. The SUV hit Wang as the driver made a left turn on Dexter Ave. North in South Lake Union. The suspect fled the scene.
Updated Jun 8, 2012 - 3:18 pm
Suspect in Seattle fatal hit and run of bicyclist is illegal alien
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has requested a retainer on the man arrested in the July 2011 fatal hit and run of a bicyclist in Seattle.
Erlin Garcia Reyes, 28, of Normandy Park, was arrested for felony hit and run on Wednesday.
ICE officials have confirmed to 97.3 KIRO-FM that Garcia-Reyes is in the country illegally.
Police believe Reyes was the driver of an SUV that fatally struck and killed 44-year-old Michael Wang on July 28, 2011. The SUV hit Wang as the driver made a left turn on Dexter Ave. North in South Lake Union. The suspect fled the scene.
38
#20 you're just being deliberately obtuse now... If you can't understand the importance of intent you're just not thinking hard enough. Its a low and corardly crime committed by a real POS (!CAPS!) on by all accounts a real gem of a human, but there's no place for that kind of stupidness... You would punish someone for making a mistake and someone who deliberately commits a wrong the same ? The running away seals it for me too, but that was a ridiculously stupid statement to compare this heartless fool with cold blooded killers.
40
@37. Fair enough but you didn't know that yesterday, punk-ass. Common sense isn't documentation and I don't give a shit if he's deported or not. Thanks for playing.
41
" I don't give a shit if he's deported or not."
Of course you don't, he didn't kill your parent or spouse. You'll probably give him a cookie and a parade when he gets out and starts driving on our streets again.
Of course you don't, he didn't kill your parent or spouse. You'll probably give him a cookie and a parade when he gets out and starts driving on our streets again.
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