Details Emerge in CHP Chase, Fatal Crash

HUNTINGTON BEACH — A Costa Mesa man who allegedly led officers on a 120-mph chase before crashing into a car and killing two newspaper deliverymen is a computer technician with the U.S. Coast Guard, authorities said Monday.

Petty Officer Michael Edward Nelson, 31, is on active duty and was in good standing, with no criminal record, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said. He could face military court proceedings.

Nelson, based in San Pedro, was heading home about 1:35 a.m. Sunday when he passed a California Highway Patrol unit on the San Diego Freeway, CHP spokeswoman Bonnie Blatt said. The two officers in the car estimated Nelson’s speed at 85 mph, she said.

When the officers pulled behind Nelson’s silver Mitsubishi, he exited at Beach Boulevard but immediately sped through a stop sign at the end of the off-ramp, Blatt said.

“That’s when they alerted dispatch that they were in pursuit,” she said of the officers, who chased Nelson through a business parking lot and east on Warner Avenue. Nelson continued to speed through traffic lights and accelerate away from the officers, exceeding 120 mph more than once, Blatt said.

Five minutes later, at 1:42 a.m., the CHP officers called off the pursuit when Nelson swerved into a residential area near Atlanta Avenue and Newland Street and disappeared, Blatt said. By then, the officers had requested help from the Huntington Beach Police Department’s helicopter unit, which was on its way to the scene, she said.

The officers were alerted at 1:43 a.m. to the crash, which occurred at Magnolia Avenue and Hamilton Avenue, Blatt said. Nelson, who officials believe was going more than 100 mph at the time of the crash, broadsided a car driven by William R. Hagerman, 58, of Irvine, who was showing Tan Van Nguyen, 52, of Westminster, a New York Times delivery route in the area, police said.

Both men died in the crash.

Nelson was booked into Huntington Beach City Jail on suspicion of two counts of vehicular manslaughter, felony drunk driving and evading arrest. He was transferred to Western Medical Center-Anaheim for treatment of possible internal injuries and was being held there late Monday in lieu of $50,000 bail, Huntington Beach Police Officer Mike Kelly said.

“At first he did not display any signs of serious injury but later complained of some pain,” Kelly said. “When you look at how horrendous the impact was in this accident, it would be amazing if he didn’t.”

The case is being handled by Huntington Beach police because CHP officers were not in pursuit at the time of the crash, Kelly said.

The CHP officers probably would have called off the chase even if they hadn’t lost sight of Nelson when they did, Kelly said.

“In pursuits like this, you get suspects who are willing to take more chances, more risks, than you are,” he said. “It just gets to the point that you have to cut it off. Unfortunately in this case, the worst-case scenario came true.”