Downtown Hit & Run Driver Busted
Santa Barbara- In an incident uniquely unreported to the media, violent and deadly mayhem broke out in the middle of Santa Barbara’s busiest tourist and commercial district on March 1st just before 6:00 p.m., according to the Santa Barbara County Jail Booking Record report filed by Santa Barbara Police Department Officer Kasi Beutel. Beutel-whose own personal notoriety pursuant to ongoing investigation into her employment history and performance metrics may have influenced the lack of media coverage in this case-and other officers responded to the report of a hit and run traffic collision at the busy intersection of State Street and Figueroa Street, in the heart of the heavily-trafficked downtown area.
Upon arrival at the scene, officers were provided with numerous witness statements and cell phone videos of the incident, including detailed vehicle and license plate descriptions of a 2006 BMW registered to Justin Alexander Holiday, 30. Witnesses reported that Holiday’s vehicle had made an unsafe turn off the main thoroughfare and collided with a Honda CRV, whereupon the BMW made a U-turn and proceeded in the opposite direction, immediately colliding with a bicyclist riding in the bike lane.
According to witness statements summarized in Beutel’s “probable cause” recitation on the booking report, “Holiday’s vehicle became lodged on the west curb” at which time Holiday and his passenger alighted from the BMW and physically pushed the BMW off the curb and back onto the street. As they jumped back into the car, a female pedestrian witness placed herself in front of the BMW in order to prevent the vehicle from leaving the scene. Undaunted, Holiday “accelerated the vehicle two separate times, making movements toward the witness” as detailed in Beutel’s report. The witness, choosing survival over heroics, stepped aside, and Holiday gunned the BMW away, fleeing the scene of the multiple accidents.
Within minutes, SBPD patrol officers confronted Holiday at his nearby residence and placed both him and his passenger, Sven Olson, 30, under arrest. It was quickly determined that Holiday is an unlicensed driver, and he was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of hit and run with injury, driving without a license, and driving under the influence. Additionally, both Holiday and Olson were booked for dissuading a witness, with their bails set at $100,000 each.
