Road rage appears to have led to a collision and crash into a storefront that killed a motorcyclist Thursday in Gardena and resulted in a 24-year-old man's arrest on suspicion of murder, police said.
Officers were dispatched about 12:15 p.m. to investigate a report of a collision between a car and motorcycle in the 16500 block of Western Avenue, near Gardena Boulevard, according to Gardena police Lt. Mike Saffell.
"Upon arrival, officers found a male adult being treated by Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics," Saffell said. "That male was immediately transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to the injuries he sustained during the collision."
The preliminary investigation revealed the motorcyclist was riding south on Western Avenue and "became involved in a conflict with a male driving a 2017 Infiniti Q50 sedan," according to Saffell.
"The conflict escalated when the sedan and the motorcycle collided in the roadway causing both to veer into a store front in the 16500 block of Western Avenue," the Gardena police detective bureau commander said.
The Infiniti driver, identified as Oscar Villa of Hawthorne, was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder, Saffell said. Villa was being held in lieu of $2 million bail and was due to appear on Tuesday in court in Torrance, according to sheriff's inmate records.
The name of the deceased motorcyclist was not immediately available, but his family said the victim had recently turned 21. They say he was on his way to work at a UPS facility at the time of the collision.
