When a USC student dies in a hit-and-run, police and the media jump on the case and officials rush out a $235,000 reward. A nearly identical accident across town gets no attention and few resources.
By Joel Rubin and Ari B. Bloomekatz
May 4, 2009
They were killed on the same day, in the same way. One of the deaths captured the attention of a city and spurred the Los Angeles Police Department into overdrive. The other slipped by unnoticed, leaving a lone detective with little more to go on than hope.
Adrianna Bachan died first. Shortly after 3 a.m. March 29, Bachan, 18, and a friend stood at the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street on the edge of the USC campus. Returning home after a night out, the two students stepped into the crosswalk and started across Jefferson.
An eastbound car blew through a red light, tossing Bachan into the air and hurling her friend onto the windshield, before it disappeared into the darkness, witnesses and police said.
Bachan's friend suffered broken legs and other injuries. Bachan was alive when she reached California Hospital Medical Center, but died before sunrise of massive head injuries.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hitandrun4-2009may04,0,4436957.story