India Post News Service
LA MIRADA: Nineteen year old Erik Aguirre of La Mirada was arrested last Wednesday for vehicular manslaughter of Liberty Jaswal when an anonymous tip led police to his girlfriend, according to Detective Jeff Tibbetts, Traffic Investigator for the cities of Norwalk and La Mirada. "It happens irregularly, but we were able to locate the girl friend through this tip," said Tibbetts to India Post.
"When we questioned her she eventually confessed to the incident and we were able to arrest the suspect," he said. Detective Tibbetts had released a video of the incident last week and underscored that this surveillance video confirmed eyewitness accounts of Liberty Jaswal’s death. "The Muslim Community Center nearby had pictures of the whole scene, except that the actual accident happened off camera.
When we interviewed witnesses their accounts matched the video images very closely," said Tibbets. "We were actually able to view the scene as it happened and it completely corroborated the witnesses we interviewed," he said. Ironically Liberty Jaswal died days before his 29th birthday which would have been celebrated on the June 30th weekend. At his funeral service in Brea at Memory Garden and Memorial Park, friends had planned to announce a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of his assailant.
The suspect Erik Aguirre was arrested about 2:30 a.m. and booked in the Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run, with bail set at $1 million, according to police. Jaswal had been fatally dragged nearly 70 feet in a Del Taco parking lot in La Mirada by a white 1990s Chevrolet Astrovan sometime around 2:15 am.
Jaswal, was a resident of Phillips Ranch near Pomona, and had been a TA in the philosophy department of UC San Diego where he was pursuing a doctorate in philosophy. He was a graduate of UC Berkeley in philosophy where he had been, among other things an environmental activist.
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