Detectives Make Breakthrough in 20 year-old L.A.P.D. Hit and Run Tragedy

Los Angeles: On October 29, 1983 at about 1 a.m., Los Angeles Police Officers Arthur Soo Hoo and William Wong were patrolling Central Division in their police vehicle. Both officers were killed when their police vehicle was struck by another vehicle whose occupants fled the scene of the collision on foot. The fatal collision occurred on North Broadway Avenue and Alpine Street in the China Town section of Los Angeles. Accident reconstruction experts estimated that the suspect’s car was traveling in excess of 75 miles per hour at the time it broadsided the police car. According to eyewitness accounts, the suspect vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed south on North Broadway Avenue. It ran a red light at College Street, continued south and ran the red light at Alpine, where it collided with the police car. The occupants of the suspect vehicle were identified and felony arrest warrants were subsequently issued for the driver, Teobaldo Villanueva and the passenger, Faustino Villareal.
During the ensuing twenty-years, L.A.P.D. detectives have continued their efforts to locate the suspects. Information from various sources placed both of the suspects somewhere in Mexico.
On July 17, 2003, Robbery-Homicide Division Detectives developed information that the passenger of the hit and run vehicle, Villareal, was possibly in Vacaville, California. Villareal had assumed the alias of Gerardo Alarcon in Vacaville, California. A fingerprint check positively identified that "Alarcon" was in fact Faustino Villareal. On July 18, 2003, Detectives flew to Vacaville, California and with the assistance of the Fairfield and Vacaville Police Departments, arrested Villareal.
Detectives are hopeful that the arrest of Villareal will eventually lead them to the arrest of Teobaldo Villanueva, the driver of the hit and run vehicle.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detectives Johnny Garcia or Paul Coulter of Robbery-Homicide Division at 213-485-2129, or the Los Angeles Police Department 24-hour hotline at 1-877-529-3855.
This press release was prepared by Public Information Officer John Moreno, Media Relations Section, 213-485-3586.