A young Moreno Valley man was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of being intoxicated when he crashed a sports car off an ocean-front street alongside Torrey Pines State Beach at high speed, killing two teenage passengers and seriously injuring two others.
Members of a fugitive task force took 19-year-old Christopher Ray Schmittel into custody at his Riverside County home on Sunday, according to the San Diego Police Department.
Shortly before 11 p.m. April 25, Schmittel lost control of the 2020 Subaru WRX he was driving in the 13000 block of North Torrey Pines Road, sending it crashing through a guardrail and rolling side-over-side down a rocky embankment onto the beach, SDPD Sgt. Victoria Houseman said.
Two passengers — Lake Elsinore residents Joshua Manzanares and Johnny Punzalan, both 19 — were ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene of the wreck.
The suspect and two other young men, ages 18 and 19, were hospitalized for treatment of serious injuries.
Schmittel, who “is suspected of being under the influence of alcohol and drugs” at the time of the crash, was booked into county jail in Vista on suspicion of felony DUI and two counts each of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter, Houseman said. He was being held without bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Wednesday.
City News Service contributed to this article.