December 7, 2007

Pedestrian killed at Branham Lane and Eagle Lake Drive

Hit and run in Blossom Valley marks city’s 39th traffic fatality

By Jeanne C. Carbone
Staff Writer

In the early morning hours of Dec. 3, Erwin Arnold, 59, was the apparent victim of a hit and run at Branham Lane and Eagle Lake Drive.

Each morning, Erwin left his sister’s house and walked to the bus stop at Almaden Expressway to attend a downtown job center. On Monday morning, Dec. 3 at approximately 4:45 a.m., he left as usual. Before he arrived to his destination, he was stuck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on Branham Lane and Eagle Lake Drive. He was not walking in the crosswalk. Arnold died from blunt force trauma. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene.

The San Jose Police Department received a call about the same time that a person was down in the area. SJPD officers arrived on the scene and located Arnold in the roadway. He was pronounced dead at the scene. SJPD officers went door-to-door in an attempt to locate anyone who had seen or heard anything in the early morning hours.

Investigators are searching for a driver and a vehicle that probably has major front-end damage with a broken front headlight and a damaged windshield. Arnold’s death is the 39th person killed by a vehicle in San Jose this calendar year.

“I talked to the investigators yesterday and there was no further information regarding the vehicle and the driver,” said SJPD Public Information Officer Jermaine Thomas. “It’s a real who done it. We’re asking for the public’s help. If anyone saw a vehicle stopped or a person or anything at all call and let us know. Someone had to see something.”

SJPD requests that anyone with information regarding this case contact Investigator Sarah Stephens of SJPD’s Vehicular Crimes Unit at (408) 277-4654 or for those wishing to remain anonymous call Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-STOP.