A 6-year-old boy who was riding his bicycle on the 1500 block of Pacific Beach Drive died after being hit by a car as he was crossing an alley near Ingraham Street Saturday afternoon at around 3:45 p.m., according to the San Diego Police Department.
Authorities have identified a 32-year-old woman as the driver who fled the scene after impacting the 6-year-old twice.
According to investigators, the driver hit the child as she was turning into the alley. They say that she stopped for several seconds and then ran over him as she took off.
The boy was transported to a hospital where he died.
The suspect’s vehicle was found in National City at a later time, and the driver was taken into custody.
Neighbors in the area say that the street is always very busy with both drivers and pedestrians.
Chandra Kaul, who lives near the intersection, urges drivers to slow down and for pedestrians to pay extra attention saying, “I think it’s really important to slow down and make sure everybody is paying attention.”
Other neighbors like Valeria Carrillo say that other people in the area have also been hit by cars traveling at a high rate of speed, “this neighbor, she just told us she was hit a year ago crossing, and then the next-door neighbor has been hit twice crossing.”
Police ask that anyone with information related to the incident call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
City officials didn’t foresee the large, “outlier” backyard-unit projects, like this build in Clairemont, that have cropped up in recent years under San Diego’s ADU program. (Photo by Madeline Nguyen/Times of San Diego)
PACIFIC BEACH – One of the most controversial housing projects in San Diego is on hold.
A California Superior Court judge in December granted a preliminary injunction on a 136-unit accessory dwelling unit project in Pacific Beach, pausing construction and marking a step forward for concerned residents.
The preliminary injunction came just four months after a group of neighbors banded together to file a lawsuit against the city and developer SDRE Homebuyers. In their suit, Neighbors for a Better Pacific Beach argue the project was approved with little oversight, despite posing environmental risks and sitting on historically significant Kumeyaay land.
“The entire hillside breathed a sigh of relief once the preliminary injunction was put into place,” said Merv Thompson, the group’s chair. “Because all of us were extremely fearful of this project, it created a huge emotional stir throughout the neighborhood.”
The project, named Chalcifica, is planned for a three-acre site on the intersection of Bluffside Avenue and Pacifica Drive. The project includes six three-story buildings and 70 parking spaces in a neighborhood of mostly single-family and military housing.
City planners approved the 136-unit project under the city’s previously unlimited bonus ADU program, before it was reformed in June.
Key neighbor concerns stem from the site’s existence along a congested Interstate 5 access route. Thompson said that additional residents and vehicles, combined with the area being in a high fire hazard severity zone, pose considerable safety issues.
“It’s a disaster from a traffic point of view. It’s a disaster from a police and fire requirements [point of view],” Thompson said. “There’s a whole myriad of problems that would have been introduced into our community by this project. It’s astounding that it even came into existence.”
As a more than 50-year PB resident, Thompson opted for legal action after watching similar ADU projects be “rubber-stamped” across the city.
“We were pretty indecisive about it until we started hearing about projects all over the city that were being approved, where bulldozers would literally arrive unannounced and start clearing a home next to neighbors,” Thompson said. “… It raised alarms all over the communities of San Diego.”
Before the June reforms, the city encouraged large ADU projects as a solution to the housing crisis, approving them automatically based on preset requirements.
SDRE president Brian Doyle said Chalcifica and other similar projects by the company will help alleviate San Diego’s housing shortage.
“This court proceeding was not unexpected and will not deter us from continuing our mission, consistent with the state of California’s goals regarding building new housing, and the City’s objective to meet those goals,” Doyle wrote in a statement.
Neighbors for a Better Pacific Beach argues the city’s automatic project approval violated its own development codes. They claim the project should have been held to a subjective review process under the California Environmental Quality Act, and a tribal consultation due to the project location.
According to case documents, the city did not respond to requests made by the Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Center last spring for tribal consultation, despite acknowledging the project’s presence on historical Kumeyaay land.
“It would truly be outrageous if the City were to approve such intense development at our traditional village, the last largely undeveloped Kumeyaay village site along the San Diego coastline,” KCRC spokesperson Steve Banegas wrote in a May 1 letter. “This would result in unacceptable impacts to a site that the City has determined to be significant under the California Environmental Quality Act and eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.”
In Thompson’s words, the December preliminary injunction proved that their case had a “fighting chance” in court, with the ultimate goal being to prevent the project entirely.
“The second choice … would be to put some respectable, thoughtful, planned housing down there,” Thompson said. “Put some houses in there that will complement the neighborhood and give a good return on investment, so long as the development doesn’t impact negatively and is supported by the Kumeyaay nation.”
SAN DIEGO – A two-year term in state prison was handed down on Nov. 19 to the man who brought an axe into a Pacific Beach library and used it to chop up books, furniture, and computer equipment.
No one was injured.
A judge ordered William John Hanley, 54, to pay for the damages, but the amount will be set in a future hearing in San Diego Superior Court. A status hearing for the restitution was set for Jan. 20, 2026.
The May 8 incident at the Pacific Beach/Taylor Library was bizarre, but Hanley deliberately only attacked books and equipment, with injuries to no one other than psychological harm. People moved out of his way and he seemed determined to hack at the property without giving an explanation.
He refused to put down the axe after he left the library that day, however, and an officer shot him twice outside, in the 4300 block of Dawes Street in Pacific Beach.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Dwayne Moring denied probation and gave him credit for spending 191 days in jail. He fined him $370.
Hanley pleaded guilty to exhibiting a weapon in a threatening manner.
The other charges Hanley faced were dismissed; they included assault on a police officer, felony vandalism, and exhibiting an axe to a police officer.
Riding e-bikes. (Photo via video from the city of Coronado)
PACIFIC BEACH – Officers from the San Diego Police Department’s Northern Division filled residents in on how they plan to address illegal use of e-bikes by youths at the Pacific Beach Town Council in October.
SDPD community relations officer Jessica Dishman introduced the Community Oriented Policing Squad team, consisting of officers Zane Peterson, Kurtis Vaughn and Dustin Welsh.
Welsh said the COPS team will be periodically working the beachfront, including the boardwalk, to engage with e-bike riders, initially emphasizing education before enforcement.
“Anything that’s powered by an electrical device we’re going to be stopping, documenting,” he said. “That way, next summer it will not be as big a problem. We can cut it off now.”
Welsh noted that SDPD is also going to be posting new signage all the way down the boardwalk and along the bays so people “can’t say we didn’t know.” He added that there is presently only one sign stating no electronic bikes are allowed, located at the foot of Grand Avenue.
E-bikes have been banned on the city’s beach boardwalks.
Also, Class 3 pedal-assisted e-bikes — which can reach speeds up to 28 mph — are illegal for youngsters to ride because of their speed and power. In California, Class 3 e-bike riders must be at least 16 years old.
Additionally, all riders must wear a helmet, regardless of age, and are subject to the same traffic laws as other vehicles.
Residents, though, were concerned about more than riding on the boardwalk. In reply to an audience member’s comment that youthful e-bike riders are more problematic on streets, Welsh replied, “We’ve started e-bike enforcement in La Jolla near schools that are no longer allowing those bikes on campus.”
Dishman pointed out that the COPS team is stretched thin, having only three officers to patrol the entire area. SDPD Northern Division serves Bay Ho, Bay Park, Clairemont Mesa East and West, La Jolla, Mission Bay Park, Mission Beach, North Clairemont, Pacific Beach, Torrey Pines and University City.
“One day [the COPS team] will focus on La Jolla, another in Mission or Pacific beaches, and everything in-between,” she said.
Dishman added that schools and parents are being enlisted to help curb illegal e-bike use.
“[Legislators are] looking into implementing some type of safety course in school that needs to take place that a parent has to sign off on,” Dishman said. “Maybe SDPD can get involved to inspect the e-bikes to make sure they’re legal because a lot of these e-bikes are modified. We want to make sure they stay within regulation.”
Asked if e-bikes that are found to be illegal, or located in spots where they’re not allowed, can be impounded, Welsh said, “They can get impounded, just like a car.”
“A lot of e-bike education is trying to educate the parents because students are just telling them, ‘My friends have one and I want one,’” Dishman added. “And parents are buying them. We’re also trying to educate parents that they’re responsible (and) can even receive a citation for this.”
SAN DIEGO – Bail was set on Oct. 22 at $200,000 for a man suspected of stabbing three security guards at a Pacific Beach bar after he was ejected.
He returned minutes later with an “8-inch hunting knife,” and stabbed the three men, said Deputy District Attorney Lauren Wade.
Dylan Robert Chase, 24, pleaded not guilty to four counts of assault with a deadly weapon before San Diego Superior Court Judge Euketa Oliver.
The stabbing incident took place early Sunday, Oct. 19, shortly after midnight at Mavericks Beach Club at 860 Garnet Avenue. Chase and a friend were ejected for some type of disturbance. Chase returned with the friend.
Wade told the judge that two victims had to have surgery after suffering internal injuries, including a ruptured spleen and a pierced lung. The third man didn’t need surgery, and all three are now out of the hospital.
Also charged with one count of assaulting a guard is Chase’s friend, Brayden Jemar Sanders, 24, who did not use a weapon in the incident. Sanders was arrested and posted bond. He will be arraigned in December.
Chase is alleged to have caused great bodily injuries to three guards, Gavin Pingel, Francisco Garcia, and Bryant Tlachi, all of whom were stabbed, according to the criminal complaint.
Chase is also accused of assaulting a fourth person at the bar. Wade told Oliver that patrons held down both defendants in the bar until police arrived to arrest them.
If convicted of all charges, Chase faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, according to Tanya Sierra, public affairs spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office.
Attorney Kevin Haughton, who represents Chase, told the judge that Chase has only lived in San Diego for approximately two months and came here from Kansas. He said Chase was staying at a sober living facility prior to his arrest.
Haughton said his client has never been charged with a felony, but acknowledged he had three prior misdemeanor convictions. He assured the judge that if he was released on his own recognizance, he would make all his court appearances.
Haughton urged Oliver to impose “minimal bail,” suggesting $10,000, as he could not afford to post a larger amount. He said that Chase would be willing to wear a GPS monitor.
The prosecutor urged $200,000 bail, saying Chase posed “an ongoing threat to the community” and was dangerous. She said he also posed “a flight risk,” since he was only visiting here from Kansas.
Oliver said the charges were too serious to allow Chase to be released on his own recognizance or bail at the range his attorney suggested. “Those (release) conditions won’t protect society,” she added.
With the three prior misdemeanor convictions, Chase’s “history of violence is escalating,” said Oliver, adding, “He poses a risk.”
Oliver then set bail at $200,000. A preliminary hearing was set for November 4. Chase remains in jail.
SAN DIEGO – A man who brought an axe into a Pacific Beach library pleaded guilty on October 21 to exhibiting a weapon in a threatening manner.
No one in the library was injured, but people were badly frightened.
William John Hanley, 54, also admitted to personal use of a weapon when he entered the Pacific Beach/Taylor Library on Cass Street on the afternoon of May 8 and began chopping up books, tables, and chairs.
He has agreed to accept a two-year sentence in state prison, said Deputy District Attorney Shane Waller. Hanley may also be ordered to pay restitution to the library for books and furniture he damaged.
A San Diego Police officer shot and wounded Hanley in the 4300 block of Dawes Street in after he left the library, but he refused to drop the axe. The weapon was recovered on a sidewalk after police shot him multiple times.
The other charges Hanley faced included assault on a police officer, felony vandalism, and exhibiting an axe to a police officer, and an employee of the Pacific Beach/Taylor Library was dismissed after he pleaded guilty to exhibiting a weapon dangerously.
He also struck at computers and power cords. People moved out of his way during the incident. No person was hit by the axe.
Hanley remains in the George Bailey Detention Facility without bail. San Diego Superior Court Judge Dwayne Moring set sentencing for November 19.
The Pacific Beach/Taylor library branch opened in 1997 and is named after Earl and Birdie Taylor following a generous donation from the Taylor family, library supporters, and early real estate developers in Pacific Beach, according to its website.
It is within walking distance of the beach. It was designed by architect Manuel Oncina. A grand piano is inside.