Murder charges have been filed against a driver who allegedly was speeding on the 405 freeway at more than 110 miles per hour when he fatally struck a Los Angeles police sergeant and another motorist, prosecutors announced Monday, June 29.
On June 23, 2025 Shiou Deng, 53, a 26-year veteran of the department, got out of his patrol car to help a motorist, 34-year-old Jesús Garcia, who had been the victim of a hit and run on the southbound 405.
Garcia had just finished a shift at Whole Foods in Woodland Hills and was headed home when the hit and run occurred near the Getty Center, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. The hit and run driver’s identity is still unknown.
As Garcia’s Toyota sat in the HOV lane, another car swerved to avoid it and hit the median, according to Hochman.
It was then that Deng arrived at the scene and turned on the emergency lights on his car as he stopped to help Garcia. Deng, Garcia and their vehicles were hit by a speeding Nissan, which killed both men.
The driver of the Nissan was identified as Mario Bickham, 36, of Hawthorne, who was driving 112.5 miles per hour, Hochman said. He has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
Though he braked seconds before the impact, Bickham was traveling at such a high speed that “it was way too late,” Hochman said.
“33 cars, from the time he turns on his lights to the time Mr. Bickham shows up, there are 33 cars that safely pass around Sergeant Deng and Mr. Garcia,” Hochman said. “Then Mario Bickham came. Mario Bickham was someone who is not unfamiliar with excessive speed.”
Bickham had been cited for excessive speed at times over the past 15 years, including a citation for going over 105 miles per hour a month before the crash that killed Garcia and Deng.
“This is not an individual who all of the sudden woke up one day and this is the first time he ever hit a speed over a hundred miles an hour. He’s actually been stopped twice before in his own life and cited for it, for that excessive speed, explained [to] that you cannot go at these amounts of speed, because of the danger that it poses to other people.”
Bickham had been offered traffic school, which he did not attend, and he did not attend court hearings he was supposed to, Hochman said.
With second degree murder charges, the penalty is 15 years to up to life in prison, up to a double life sentence in this case, since there are two victims, Hochman said.
Drugs and alcohol were not a factor in the crash, Hochman said.
Bickham was arrested on Monday morning, June 29, outside of his home by the CHP, after an “extensive investigation” was conducted across the past year, Chris Margaris, chief of the California Highway Patrol’s Southern Division said.
The district attorney’s office is seeking no bail, or alternatively, bail of $4 million, Hochman said.