On Christmas Eve, California Highway Patrol officers Andrew Camilleri and Jonathan Velasquez were patrolling the Bay Area for drunk drivers when they pulled to the side of Interstate 880. At 11:30 pm, according to Alameda County documents, a red Cadillac CTS-V drove “directly into the path of the patrol vehicle,” at a speed of approximately 120 miles per hour.
The crash wounded Velasquez and killed Camilleri, 33, whose wife Roseanna and children Elizabeth, Andrew Jr. and Ryder got the bluest Christmas anyone could expect. Camilleri had aspired to join the CHP since high school and was a model officer who loved to help stranded motorists. Information about the driver who had taken Camilleri’s life, on the other hand, was in short supply.
Initial reports identified him only as a 22-year-old man who had allegedly been intoxicated on alcohol and high on marijuana. A drunk, stoned driver killing a police officer is a serious matter, and many Californians wondered why the CHP had not released the driver’s name, booking photo, and any background information of interest.
Nothing emerged until more than a week later, on January 2, 2018. The CHP explains the delay as due to hospitalization but Californians could be forgiven for their doubts. As it happened, the state’s new sanctuary legislation kicked in on January 1, and the driver who had taken officer Camilleri’s life was identified as “Hayward man” Mohammed Abraar Ali. The CHP did not inquire about his immigration status.
In 2013, Ali had been “arrested on suspicion of a burglary in Fremont, but the charges in that case were later dismissed.” Police released the booking photo from the previous arrest, not the crash that killed Andrew Camilleri. The same report noted that Ali “has an active security guard license that was issued by the state Bureau of Security and Investigative Services in September 2016.”
According to another report, a hospital physician reported a strong odor of alcohol on Ali’s breath and described the man as “combative,” a rather unusual condition for someone who has survived a deadly crash. The Sutter Health system declined to release “any specifics” about what Ali might have said or done to be described as combative.
Ali told police he had threatened his wife that night before driving from Manteca to Hayward. Alameda County documents name Ali’s wife as April Ramirez but she is not quoted in news reports. Police, reporters and motorists alike had grounds to be skeptical of Ali’s story, and good reason to ask some hard questions.
Alameda County did not document Ali’s immigration status and the box for “race” reads “Other Asian.” Was “Hayward man” Mohammed Abraar Ali an American national? Or was he an immigrant who had perhaps gained admission to the United States through the lottery system, like Sayfullo Saipov the Uzbek Muslim who killed 8 people in New York on Halloween by running them down with a truck.
Or perhaps he came to the USA through chain migration, as a relative of a lottery winner. Or maybe he was in the country illegally, perhaps overstaying a visa or crossing from Mexico or Canada. Perhaps his security guard identification was false documentation. A search for Ali’s name on the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services website renders no results.
California’s ruling Democrats have barred police from asking any questions about immigration status. Neither do California police hand over criminals to federal officials for deportation. San Francisco released Mexican national Jose Inez Garcia Zarate, the felon who fired the shot that killed Kate Steinle in July, 2015, and a San Francisco court recently found him not guilty of all murder and manslaughter charges.
Was it possible that Ali was following ISIS threats to kill Americans during the Christmas season, and to use vehicles as weapons in attacks on infidels. Could Ali have selected the massive Cadillac as a weapon and deliberately targeted police officers? No law forbids reporters from asking such questions but in this case they apparently suspended their investigative curiosity.
More detail emerged in the case of “Sacramento man” Gilberto Garcia-Bejarano, arrested on January 2 for soliciting sex with an 8-year-old girl. As the Sacramento Bee reported, Garcia-Bejarano also possessed “false immigration documents.”
Like Kate Steinle’s killer, the false-documented Gilberto Garcia-Bejarano was not supposed to be in the United States in the first place. California not only welcomes criminal illegals, who do vote in federal, state and local elections, but gives them privileged, protected status.
Mohammed Abraar Ali, meanwhile, faces five felony counts, including second-degree murder. At the memorial service, CHP bosses lamented drunk and stoned drivers but did not mention Ali. In similar style, governor Jerry Brown mourned the death of Camilleri and honored his sacrifice, but said nothing about the man accused of causing Camilleri’s death and seriously injuring Jonathan Velasquez.
“Andrew I know you can hear me,” Velasquez said at the memorial for the slain officer, “it was an honor being your partner, rest in peace brother.”
In the sanctuary state of California, the rule is going to be “no justice, no peace.”
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