Police on Monday arrested a man accused of driving an SUV that struck a 21-year-old woman marching at a “No Kings” protest in Riverside. She remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Russell Prentice, 58, of Riverside was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and hit-and-run causing injury, the Riverside Police Department said Tuesday. He was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.
Candase Wenzel was also arrested. The 39-year-old Riverside woman is accused of having a role in taking the SUV more than 30 miles away to the remote unincorporated area of Phelan in the Mojave Desert, “intentionally destroying and concealing evidence,” the Police Department said.
Prentice allegedly fled after driving a black SUV toward a crowd of protesters marching along University Avenue, between Orange and Main streets, and striking the woman at around 9:10 p.m. Saturday. Police haven’t identified the victim, but a woman who called herself a friend and created a GoFundMe page identified her as Alexa Carrasco.
“She was rushed to the hospital” and was in intensive care with “life-threatening injuries,” wrote the friend, Leslie Hernandez. Hernandez told The Times on Monday that Carrasco was in critical condition in the intensive care unit but was stable.
Carrasco’s friends told KCAL-TV that she suffered severe skull injuries as well as a cracked rib, punctured lung and broken leg.
After police issued a plea to the community for tips to identify and locate the suspect, officers were able to find the SUV’s license plate number. Detectives were then able to identify the suspect, police said, and made an arrest in Riverside.
Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez expressed his thanks for the tips that people sent to police.”We’re grateful for the information they provided,” the chief said in a statement.
Anyone else who has information on the hit-and-run is asked to contact Riverside Police Det. Mike Smith at [email protected] or (951) 353-7103, or Det. Nic Cantino at [email protected] or (951) 353-7104.
Times staff writer Ruben Vives contributed to this report.
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