Carmen Esqueda and Issac Meza were walking to their car after what was meant to be a fun night out. Security footage shows a white SUV passing by with the couple looking both ways before crossing the street. That's when family members say the unthinkable happened. 23ABC's Ruby Rivera has more about the story.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 couple who walked out of a Bakersfield nightclub over the weekend and were
00:03 struck by a vehicle are still in the hospital tonight. Police still searching
00:07 for the driver involved. 23 abc's Ruby Rivera spoke with the victim's families
00:11 who are still processing what happened to their loved ones. We want to warn
00:15 you that some of the video in this story you're about to see may be
00:18 disturbing for some viewers, anger, confusion and disbelief. That's how
00:23 family members of Isaac Mesa and Carmen Esqueda have been feeling the past
00:27 couple of days. They were told it was a car crash, but after getting to the
00:30 hospital, they were given a different truth. And after looking over the
00:33 security footage, family members say they are shocked at how somebody could
00:37 do something like this. It wasn't an accident. You can literally clearly see
00:41 on the video that he's seen them crossing the street and came back and
00:46 reverse not only slowly but fast. This surveillance video is from a gas
00:51 station across the street from the nightclub El Montecito in East
00:54 Bakersfield, which shows two people being hit. According to family members,
00:58 Esqueda has a spinal fracture with nerve and muscle damage and Mesa is
01:02 currently in the I. C. U. With a traumatic brain injury in critical
01:05 condition. Williams sister, Yahaira Vargas says she drove to El Montecito
01:08 club where she asked the gas station across the street for their security
01:12 footage. I went to the gas station and I seen the blood on the street. I seen
01:16 her dad's truck there, you know, intact and not messed with. It was still
01:20 parked, which
01:23 gave me clarity that it was, you know, someone that just ran into that gas
01:27 station. Attendant Anita says when the family arrived, she told them the
01:30 footage was disturbing. Anita says the quick serve parking lot is commonly
01:34 used for people going to El Montecito club, but this is the first time she's
01:37 seen something like this. It almost made you want to cry because how can
01:42 somebody be so heartless to do that to another human being and just drive away
01:48 like,
01:49 you know, they just ran over of a roach or something. They didn't even
01:53 care. BPD says, while security footage helps the investigators, witnesses are
01:57 the key to cases like this and want to remind the public that what you might
02:00 think is unimportant may actually help the case, what people see and what
02:04 people can describe. Even the smallest details can sometimes help. Uh, you
02:08 know, a small detail of a car, a sticker that you saw or something like
02:11 that can help identify and confirm, you know, whose car it was and what it was
02:15 that happened. Meanwhile, families say they won't stop until they get the
02:18 answers to their questions. I don't care if it's the area that I was at
02:23 because it's a nightclub because there's drunk people around. It's
02:26 they're humans and you don't just hit someone and leave. Family members say
02:33 all they want now is justice for their parents and to find the person
02:36 responsible. This is currently an ongoing investigation and anyone with
02:40 information is urged to call BPD at 3277111 in East Bakersfield for beer
02:46 Rivera, 23 ABC News, connecting you.