{"id":66394,"date":"2025-11-23T10:42:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/66394\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T10:42:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:42:32","slug":"suspect-arrested-in-car-chase-crash-that-killed-an-alhambra-police-officer-and-a-passenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/66394\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect arrested in car chase crash that killed an Alhambra police officer and a passenger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The California Highway Patrol said it has arrested the driver involved in a traffic collision that left two people dead, including an Alhambra police officer.<\/p>\n

The driver, who remains hospitalized, was arrested on suspicion of second degree murder, according to a statement from the CHP. The suspect has been identified as 27-year-old Steven Zapata, a resident of El Monte. <\/p>\n

Zapata is accused of driving a stolen Hyundai sports utility vehicle and colliding with a police cruiser that was being driven by 28-year-old Alec Sanders, an officer with the Alhambra Police Department. Sanders did not survive his injuries.<\/p>\n

Zapata is awaiting medical clearance to be processed into a detention facility, authorities said.<\/p>\n

CHP officials said the crash occurred around 3 a.m. Thursday at Valley Boulevard and Edgewood Drive. CHP officers responding to the crash came upon the damaged silver Hyundai sports utility vehicle in a business parking lot, northwest of the intersection. They also found a damaged patrol vehicle in the westbound lanes of Valley Boulevard, west of Edgewood Drive. <\/p>\n

A preliminary investigation by CHP\u2019s Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team determined that Zapata was traveling north on Edgewood Drive at an unknown speed. <\/p>\n

At the same time, Sanders was traveling west on Valley Boulevard in the intersection of Edgewood Drive at an unknown speed when both vehicles collided. <\/p>\n

CHP investigators also determined that Sanders was in pursuit of Zapata<\/a> when the crash occurred. <\/p>\n

Authorities said the Hyundai carried two passengers. A 52-year-old male passenger suffered life-threatening injuries and was transported by paramedics to a hospital. A second passenger, an adult Latina woman, was ejected from the SUV and pronounced dead at the scene, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner identified the woman as 42-year-old Gabriela Moreno. <\/p>\n

Officials said Sanders sustained life-threatening injuries and was transported to Los Angeles General Medical Center in Boyle Heights, where he succumbed to his injuries. <\/p>\n

Alhambra Police Chief Garrett Kennedy said Sanders had been with the department for about eight months and has previously served with the Long Beach Police Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s known for his unwavering reliability,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cHe was the type of officer who responded to every call whether he was dispatched to it or not; he was one of those officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Sanders was passionate about fitness, liked to travel and was an \u201centhusiastic Dallas Cowboys fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be deeply missed by his family, friends and co-workers, who are all one and the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The California Highway Patrol said it has arrested the driver involved in a traffic collision that left two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[37941,6577,852,39527,350,37944,18218,349,48,52,51,47,50,49,2322,16208,12415,4668,39528,39526,39525],"class_list":["post-66394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alhambra-police-officer","tag-authority","tag-chp","tag-chp-official","tag-crash","tag-edgewood-drive","tag-hyundai","tag-injury","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-officer","tag-passenger","tag-patrol-vehicle","tag-sanders","tag-unknown-speed","tag-valley-boulevard","tag-zapata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66394","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=66394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}