Hit and Run Suspect Cooperates with Police, DA
Man Willingly Volunteered Information to Traffic Investigators
Freddy Pacheco, a 31-year-old suspected of being the hit-and-run driver who injured a two-year-old girl on Saturday, September 13, called the investigator looking into the accident and came in for questioning, said Santa Barbara Police spokesperson Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte on Wednesday. Though Duarte did not say that Pacheco confessed to hitting the girl, Pacheco came into the police station on Tuesday, September 16, and brought with him his 1997 Chevrolet SUV, which matched the description of the car that witnesses described. Pacheco has not been arrested and his car has been released to him, but the matter is now in the hands of the district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to file charges against him for felony hit and run and also for driving with a suspended license.
Around 6:15 p.m. on September 13, the two-year-old ran out into the roadway on the 700 block of San Pascual Street. According to police reports, a Chevy Tahoe hit her. The man driving the car stepped out, picked the child up, and began searching for her mother. Once he found the mother, he drove both her and her injured child to Cottage Hospital, but then fled without leaving any contact information.
Upon examining the child at the hospital, doctors found that she had suffered broken ribs and lacerations to her head.
