By Donna Beth Weilenman
Martinez News Gazette

A woman who apparently deliberately ran down three pedestrians Monday morning at Court and Main streets jumped to her death from the Benicia-Martinez Bridge after crashing her car about midspan, Martinez Police Commander Eric Ghisletta said.
“Her name is being withheld until positive identification from the Contra Costa County Coroner’s Office,” Ghisletta said.
Martinez police is considering the incident an assault with a deadly weapon, the car, rather than a hit and run accident, Chief Manjit Sappal said.
The series of incidents began about 10:33 a.m. Monday when a caller reported the accident at the intersection of Court and Main streets, and said the motorist had fled in a light blue vehicle.
Martinez Police arrived to find several Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputies giving first aid to three injured adults, he said.
Witnesses told officers that the motorist appeared to take aim on the three pedestrians before leaving. The three were taken to local hospitals with moderate injuries, Ghisletta said.
“It appears one of the victims left a family court hearing at the Family Law Center, 751 Pine St., just prior to the incident,” he said.
He said that victim, a man who was accompanied by two friends, were crossing the street when his estranged wife accelerated her vehicle toward the trio.
“The driver struck all three pedestrians, then stopped the vehicle and reversed directions,” Ghisletta said. “She struck one of the other victims a second time with her vehicle before fleeing the scene.”
One woman told bystanders that victim had been struck on the head by the vehicle as the motorists was escaping.
Police cordoned off the accident scene. Sappal said it appeared Monday that the three pedestrians would survive their wounds.
About 20 minutes later, Benicia Police Department received a call that a woman appeared to have jumped from the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, Ghisletta said.
A California Highway Patrol spokesperson said his office received a call about 10:42 a.m. that a woman driving a Ford Focus southbound on the bridge had been involved in a crash about at its midspan. She then left the car and jumped from the bridge.
Sappal confirmed the woman was heading south back toward Martinez. She was not being pursued at the time, he said.
“It appears she made a U-turn at some point in Benicia,” he said.
The United States Coast Guard confirmed it pulled a woman from the water about 11:18 a.m. Ghisletta said officers from Martinez Police, Benicia Police and the California Highway Patrol as well as the Coast Guard responded to the area where the deceased woman’s body was found.
“A vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle in the hit and run was located on the bridge in the area where the female had jumped,” Ghisletta said. “Based on all indications, it appears that the female who jumped from the bridge was also the driver of the vehicle who struck the pedestrians.”
He said investigation of the incidents is ongoing.

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