Fatality

A man accused of drunk driving in a crash that killed five members of a Los Angeles family had weeks earlier fled from an Orange County juvenile detention facility. The Orange County Probation Department requested an arrest warrant for Jean Ervin Soriano, 18, after it discovered that he had left the Youth Guidance Center in Santa Ana on March 1. But authorities didn't find him until Saturday morning on a Nevada highway after he allegedly rear-ended a van filled with family members returning from a trip to see a dying relative.

The juvenile facility that an 18-year-old accused of killing five people while driving drunk escaped from was a detention center for people with substance abuse issues, according to Orange County's website. Jean Ervin Soriano, 18, escaped on March 1 from the Youth Guidance Center in Santa Ana, which is operated by the county's probation department. The 80-bed facility keeps 60 beds for males and 20 for females and treats offenders from 13 to 20 years old. It offers two main programs, for drug and alcohol abusers.

A woman estimated to be in her 70s was killed Thursday afternoon when the motorized scooter she was riding collided with a pickup truck in Anaheim. The woman was pronounced dead on the scene. Her name has not been released. Sgt. Bob Dunn of the Anaheim Police Department said that the accident is still under investigation and that the driver of the pickup has not been cited. Both the scooter and the truck were in the one of the southbound lanes of Euclid Street at Crone Avenue when the collision occurred.

A suspected drunk driver accused of causing a crash that killed five people outside Las Vegas over the weekend is from Orange County, authorities said Tuesday. Jean Ervin Soriano, 18, who was being held on $3.5 million bail, was born in Mission Viejo, said officials at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas. Soriano is accused of being behind the wheel of a Dodge Durango about 3 a.m. Saturday when it rear-ended a Chevy Astro van carrying seven people on Interstate 15 about 30 miles south of Mesquite.

A driver admitted to authorities he had “too many” beers to drink before hitting a van on a remote Nevada highway, killing five members of the same family in the other vehicle, an arrest report shows. Jean Ervin Soriano, 18, told a Nevada Highway Patrol deputy he had been drinking Budweisers before the violent crash on Interstate 15 in southeastern Nevada early Saturday morning that killed three brothers, a wife and a 13-year-old girl, according to the report. Several beer bottles were found in his car, police said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of a teenager at a party in Lancaster early Saturday, authorities said. The shooting occurred about 1 a.m. in the 700 block of East Avenue K Street, authorities said. The unidentified victim was pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting took place in a house where a large party was taking place, some witnesses told KABC-TV and City News Service. Authorities provided no additional information.

Traffic was snarled on the southbound 605 Freeway in Whittier early Thursday after a chain-reaction crash that left two people dead. The accident occurred about 2:30 a.m. when a southbound motorist in the carpool lane crashed into the center divider near Beverly Boulevard, according to the California Highway Patrol. The driver left the disabled vehicle and walked off the freeway, the CHP said. Four other cars were then involved in accidents. Some apparently hit the disabled car, and others then hit those vehicles, officials said.

All lanes of the 605 Freeway are now open after two men were killed early Thursday morning in a chain reaction accident, the California Highway Patrol said. The southbound freeway was closed for about three hours near Whittier Boulevard beginning around 2:30 a.m., the CHP said. The collisions were set off by a car that came to rest on the roadway after crashing into the center divider. The driver walked to the right shoulder and was unhurt. No alcohol is suspected, said CHP officer Francisco Villalobos.

A limousine driver who was apparently involved in a hit-and-run collision Wednesday in Van Nuys was involved in a fatal accident shortly afterward half a mile away, authorities said. Sgt. Mike Zaboski of the Los Angeles Police Department said the Town Car-style limousine was first involved in a non-injury accident near Riverside Drive and Fulton Avenue.  About 1:35 p.m., Zaboski said, the same driver was involved in a four-car crash at Fulton Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard. The two locations are half a mile apart, he said.