The driver accused of hitting and killing four members of the same family last month has been arrested by the Escondido Police Department.
The driver -- identified by police as Ashley Rene Williams, 28 -- was arrested for murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
On May 5 at around 8:30 p.m., Williams reportedly hit all four members of the family as they were walking on San Pasqual Valley Road.
The group of four were about a minute's walk from their home.
The victims were identified as Carmela Camacho, 50, her partner Abel Valdez, 33, and Camacho's two grandchildren, 10-year-old Yovanny Felix and 11-year-old Emmanuel Rivas.
The mother of the children and daughter to Camacho, Norma Espinoza, said the family takes the same walk nearly every evening, but this time they never made it home.
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"We are somewhat at peace, but nothing is going to bring them back," Espinoza said in regards to the arrest. "We're going to be fighting until the end and hope she gets for what she did. She murdered four family members that meant everything to me."
One of the witnesses said she works as a lifeguard and tried to give Camacho CPR.
“I should have just gone to the other kid but the thing is, even when I talked to law enforcement, they said that it wouldn’t have made a difference because the other injuries were too big," Tiffany Shields told NBC 7.
William's will be booked into the Vista Detention Facility.
The Escondido Police Department released the following statement on the investigation of the incident.
"This case has been a devastating event for our community. Investigators spent many hours putting together this case and we want the public to understand the following:
- All murder cases take time, energy, and a team of investigators to gather and process the evidence.
- Moreover, the nature of vehicle-related death investigations requires significant follow-up investigation including vehicle computer analysis, cell phone analysis, roadway computations, and lab tests.
- When arrests are made too quickly and without enough investigation, the DA’s office may not be able to prosecute the case because the case cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt."
