Fatal crash on Highway 4 involved person suspected of pulling fire alarm, district attorney investigator

ANTIOCH — An investigator for the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office drove a car that fatally hit a 27-year-old man who was suspected of pulling a fire alarm and punching a security guard minutes earlier, police said.

It all happened Monday about 10:35 a.m. in an incident that began at a motel in the 2400 block of Mahogany Way and ended with the fatality on Highway 4.

Authorities did not identify the dead man immediately, citing the investigation.

In a statement, Lt. Bill Whitaker said Antioch police are investigating the case along with the California Highway Patrol. The CCCDA also is investigating, the standard protocol for any death that happens during an active incident.

Whitaker said officers received a call from security personnel at the motel that a man had pulled a fire alarm and hit a security guard, who then pursued him in the area behind medical offices on Delta Fair Boulevard. Officers found the guard there.

At some point, the suspect then jumped a fence and ran onto Highway 4. That’s when the on-duty investigator from the CCCDA hit him, Whitaker said. That investigator was not involved in the initial incident and was driving the car in that area “by chance,” Whitaker said.

Authorities did not say exactly where on the highway the collision happened or in which direction the vehicle was going.

That investigator and Antioch police rendered immediate aid after the collision, Whitaker said. The man died at the scene.

Whitaker said that police at no point ran after the suspect, nor did they pursue him by car.