Photo: Harvey Jacobo
An injury traffic collision report dispatched Porterville Police officers to the intersection of Olive Avenue and Westwood Street the evening of May 5, 2020. In route, several more reports were made detailing the collision: a bicyclist had been struck by a dark colored vehicle whose driver had fled the scene. When officers arrived, they found the bicyclist, a 15-year old badly injured male. Unfortunately, the boy died from his injures at the hospital.
The Porterville Police Department’s Major Accident Investigation Team was tasked to investigate the accident. The juvenile was traveling northbound on Westwood Street. As he crossed Olive Avenue, a dark colored sedan traveling westbound on Olive struck him and without stopping fled the scene.
The involved vehicle was located unoccupied on the 1700 block of West Olive Avenue. Continued investigation led officers to the suspect, 23-year old Harvey Jacobo. They located Jacobo at a residence on the 500 block of South Milo Street in Porterville. Jacobo, whose license is suspended due to prior DUI’s and required to drive a vehicle equipped with an Ignition Interlock Device, was intoxicated when police contacted him.
Jacobo was taken into custody without resistance, arrested for vehicular manslaughter, hit and run causing death, DUI causing death, driving on suspended driver’s license, and driving without required ignition interlock device. He was booked at the Tulare County Sheriff’s South County Detention Facility with bail set at $100,000.
Photo from the Porterville Police Department
