Driver intentionally hit bicyclist in fatal West Long Beach crash last month, police say
Four days after Kenneth Richard Sok killed Gerado Mejia, he was fatally shot by federal agents, according to authorities.
A Long Beach man who was fatally shot by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in July had intentionally struck a homeless man riding a bike in West Long Beach, police said Friday.
Long Beach police say Kenneth Richard Sok, 39, intentionally hit 51-year-old Gerado Mejia near Cowles Street and Santa Fe Avenue around 2:38 a.m. on July 6. Sok fled the scene, police added.
Long Beach Fire Department personnel gave Mejia medical aid but he died at the scene, authorities said.
Four days later, on July 10, Sok was shot and killed by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents, according to police and media reports. During the encounter in Blythe near the California-Arizona border, Sok stabbed one of the agents before they opened fire, according to KAWC.
Mejia's death was the 26th traffic fatality reported by the LBPD this year. Last year, the department reported 56 traffic-related fatalities from 53 crashes, making it the deadliest year on the road since at least 1990, when the city reported 51 deaths, according to LBPD data from a public records request by the Watchdog.
There have been 34 traffic fatalities reported in Long Beach so far this year.
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