An Escondido Police Officer who ran over over a man who was riding his electric bike during a police chase pleaded not guilty to charges of gross vehicular manslaughter.
Officer Ingco appeared in a North County courtroom to enter his plea in the death of 39-year-old Jacob Illian.
Illian was riding his e-bike in the afternoon of August 21, 2025 when Officer Ingco initiated a police pursuit, chasing the 39-year-old father on a designated bike path near Valley Parkway and Rose Street, just east of Midway Drive,.
Officer Ingco hit Illian with his police cruiser. Illian died at the scene from blunt force impact to the head.
“[Mr. Illian’s] family is gratified that the District Attorney seeks to hold this officer accountable for his crime; the family has waited a long time for this day, and they intend to see this case through,” said attorney Mark Fleming, who is representing the family alongside civil rights firm, McKenzie Scott.
On May 7, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges against Officer Ingco in Illian’s death.
Ingco faces a single misdemeanor count of of gross vehicular homicide, with a maximum penalty of one year in custody.
“On or about August 21, 2025, [Mr. Ingco] did unlawfully kill Jacob Illian, a human being, without malice aforethought, while driving a motor vehicle, and the killing was the proximate result of the commission of a lawful act, that might produce death, in an unlawful manner, and without gross negligence,” reads the criminal complaint, obtained by Times of San Diego.
“What happened to Jacob was not an accident — it was the foreseeable result of a decision to chase a man on a bicycle with a patrol car,” said co-counsel and civil rights lawyer Tim Scott. “This family lost a husband, a father, and a son.”
Mr. Ingco’s preliminary trial date is set for September.
