LOS ANGELES
An off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was charged today with murder for a fatal solo car crash last summer, according to officials.
“Reckless driving can be deadly and no one knows that more than law enforcement officers,” District Attorney George Gascón said.
Daniel Manuel Auner, 22, faces one felony count each of murder and reckless driving on a highway causing injury with an allegation of causing great bodily injury.
Just after midnight on July 8, 2020, Auner, an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, was allegedly driving his vehicle at a high rate of speed when the car crashed into a traffic pole at the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and 190th Street in Torrance, according to officials.
His front-seat passenger, Ashley Wells, 23, died as a result of her injuries. Two other passengers suffered serious injuries, according to prosecutors.
Wells’ family told KTLA/Los Angeles that their daughter met Auner for the first time earlier that day, and she and two friends left Hennessey’s Tavern in Redondo Beach with him. They said there was no doubt in their minds that Auner was under the influence after seeing video their daughter took showing the deputy drinking shots with Wells and her friends.
“You’re drinking, you’re driving, you’re racing another car,” the victim’s mother, Lanora Wells told KTLA. “And we were told that the only reason why he was not arrested was because they were not aware of his drinking until after two hours after the investigation.”
According to Torrance police, the off-duty deputy was not given a field sobriety test because he was also injured and rushed to an area hospital.
The case remains under investigation by the Torrance Police Department.