Suspect in CHP Officer's Death Was Driving 120 MPH

HAYWARD, California -- A Hayward man was driving an estimated 120 mph when he slammed into the back of a parked California Highway Patrol vehicle on Christmas Eve, killing a CHP officer and father of three from Tracy, according to a police report.

Mohammed Abraar Ali, 22, was charged with murder on Tuesday. At the time of the wreck about 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 24, Ali was under the influence of alcohol and also had marijuana in his system, said Ernie Sanchez, a division chief with the CHP.

According to the police report, Ali admitted to having threatened his wife earlier on Christmas Eve before driving from Manteca to Hayward where the crash happened along southbound Interstate 880. Ali told police that he knew he was impaired and "should have pulled over at least three times but did not," the police report says.

Witnesses saw Ali's red Cadillac CTS-V "aggressively weaving through traffic" before veering onto the right shoulder and striking the CHP sport utility vehicle, the report says. The impact killed Officer Andrew Camilleri, a 2002 West High School graduate who had been on the force for less than nine months.

"The message is clear," Sanchez told reporters Tuesday. "Drinking and driving is socially unacceptable, and smoking marijuana and driving is as unacceptable."

Ali remained hospitalized Tuesday but was expected to be released within 48 hours and then booked into jail, Sanchez said.

The night of the crash, Ali's blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.11 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent, according to the CHP report. A hospital physician reported a strong odor of alcohol on the man's breath and described him as combative.

Ali was charged with second-degree murder, which requires that a criminal defendant knows that an action he or she is taking is dangerous, and does it anyway with "disregard for human life," Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said.

In addition to murder, Ali was charged with driving on a highway at speeds greater than 100 mph and with three counts related to injuries caused to Camilleri's partner, Jonathan Velasquez, who was also in the CHP vehicle at the time of the crash.

Sanchez said Ali had never before been arrested by CHP for driving under the influence.

Hundreds of other DUI arrests were made this holiday season in Alameda County alone, O'Malley said.

At a memorial service in Stockton on Saturday, Camilleri was remembered as having been happy to achieve his dream of becoming a CHP officer after hard work and sacrifice that forced him to be apart from his family for more than three months while he attended the academy.

"When will we say 'enough is enough' and finally reach a point where every single driver on the road realizes he or she cannot and must not drink, smoke, take drugs and get behind the wheel of a car?" O'Malley said.

Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or [email protected]. Follow him at recordnet.com/breitlerblog and on Twitter @alexbreitler.

———

Visit The Record (Stockton, Calif.) at www.recordnet.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.