SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – The family of a beloved Pacific Beach restaurant worker says they are feeling some relief after an arrest was made nearly eight months after he was killed in a hit-and-run.<\/p>\n
Qwente Bryant, an assistant general manager at Tavern at the Beach, was walking home from work early on a Saturday morning in February when he was struck and killed.<\/p>\n
For Bryant’s cousin, Joletta Peery, the months without an arrest were excruciating.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t get closure,\u201d she added. \u201cSomeone out there is living their life, but your loved one is gone\u2026 Now, there is a little bit of relief, but we have so many questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABC 10News first reported on the case in February, after Bryant was found around 2 a.m. in the middle of Garnet Avenue, east of Gresham Street, following his shift at the restaurant.<\/p>\n
In the days after his death, a memorial formed outside Tavern at the Beach, where friends and co-workers remembered Bryant, known as \u201cQ,\u201d as an important part of the Pacific Beach community.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnergetic, funny, loving, anything kind was Qwente,\u201d Peery said.<\/p>\n
Police later released an image of an SUV in connection with the investigation. Peery said a Mercedes SUV was recovered in Mission Valley about five days after the collision.<\/p>\n
Nearly eight months later, 22-year-old Viacheslav Akimenko was arrested and arraigned Thursday afternoon on charges including gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run causing death.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy reaction? Thank God. It\u2019s about time. It\u2019s been eight months,\u201d Peery said.<\/p>\n
But she said the arrest also brought new questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is this? Why not turn yourself in from day one?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Peery said the long wait has been especially difficult for Bryant\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just left her baby, left her baby to die. No regard for his life. Just heartless,\u201d Peery said.<\/p>\n
Bryant’s relatives live outside San Diego, but Peery said they plan to travel here for upcoming court appearances.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe deserves the justice,\u201d Peery said. \u201cThe family, his mom deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – The family of a beloved Pacific Beach restaurant worker says they are feeling some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[161,12258,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-482460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-hit-and-run","tag-pacific-beach","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}