ONE PERSON was killed and three hurt in a car crash Monday in Fountain Valley (Shutterstock).
An incident that began with arson turned into a high-speed chase which concluded with a collision and a rollover crash that took the life of one person in Fountain Valley and three people were hospitalized on Monday evening.
The suspect arrested in connection with the incident was identified by Fountain Valley police as Timothy Bradford Cole, 43, of the Huntington Beach.
The decedent was described only as a 25-year-old Huntington Beach woman. Her name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
According to the FVPD, the incident began around 7:30 p.m. when officers responded to a home in the 18000 block of Arches Court in regard to a report of an arson fire that had just taken place.
The suspect was gone when the police arrived, and they learned that because of an ongoing domestic dispute, a ‘known suspect” doused a bush next to the home with lighter fluid and ignited it.
The bush burst into flames which spread to the house and the fire was extinguished before officers arrived.
After investigation, officers found the suspect’s unoccupied vehicle, a white Dodge Ram truck in a parking lot in the 17900 block of Brookhurst Street in Fountain Valley. At around 10 p.m. officers spotted the suspect in the Dodge, driving it toward Brookhurst Street.
With marked police vehicles closing in, the vehicle was driven southbound on Brookhurst “at a high rate of speed,” with officers in pursuit.
At Ellis and Magnolia streets, the Dodge entered the intersection against a red light and collided with a white BMX X3 in the intersection causing a rollover accident. The suspect was arrested and officers gave medical aid to the three occupants in the BMW while awaiting paramedics.
The passengers in the BMW were taken to a local trauma center and the suspect was taken to a trauma center in Long Beach. The two victims in the BMW survived the crash and were listed in critical and stable condition; the third died on the way to the hospital.
The suspect is listed in serious condition with non-life-threatening injuries.
Witnesses to the incident and any person with information about the collision are encouraged to call the FVPD at (714) 593-4485.
