 |
|
Neira said she was standing with her head through the sunroof, throwing confetti and waving to the crowd, when she noticed Cabrere was driving too fast. She said she ducked into the limo several times to tell him to slow down, but he didn’t respond.
|
Assembly Candidate’s Limo Runs Down Paradegoers in Chinatown
By J.K. Dineen
The San Francisco Examiner
A festive parade in San Francisco’s Chinatown turned into a bloody nightmare on Saturday when a limo carrying State Assembly candidate Gail Neira rammed into three pedestrians, critically injuring one.
The volunteer driver, Jeff Cabrere, was arrested and charged with three counts of attempted murder and driving under the influence, police said. He tested positive for drugs and was overheard saying, “I hope somebody’s dead,” according to San Francisco Police Sgt. Neville Gittens.
Cabrere, 44, also goes by the name Jeff Rubi, police said.
A 22-year-old victim remained in critical condition Sunday night with massive injuries to the chest and pelvic areas, said a supervising nurse at San Francisco General Hospital. Two other victims, an 11-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, were treated for minor injuries and released. They were struck at the intersection of Clay and Stockton streets at about 5 p.m. on Saturday.
The victims, who were from Sacramento, were part of the parade pageantry involving a dragon dance.
The alleged vehicular assault took place on Stockton Street during the Double Tenth parade, an annual celebration of Taiwanese independence.
Neira said she was standing with her head through the sunroof, throwing confetti and waving to the crowd, when she noticed Cabrere was driving too fast. She said she ducked into the limo several times to tell him to slow down, but he didn’t respond.
“I’m a natural bossy nag. I said ‘please slow down,’ and the parade monitors were telling him to slow down,” said Neira. “Then I told him to stop, please stop, but the guy was just tuning everything out. How was I to know he was not coherent?”
Neira said she did not know the driver prior to last week when he responded to a note she placed on his windshield in her Potrero Hill neighborhood. She said she was desperate to find a volunteer with a convertible, truck or limo for the parade.
“People like me don’t have the luxury to hire the best,” she said. “That is the way it is. I stuck notes all over the area to see who would call me back.”
She said Cabrere went out of his way to say he didn’t drink and that he asked for a mineral water when he picked her up on Saturday morning.
“To me, he just seemed slow-witted. He wasn’t staggering; his eyes weren’t bloodshot. He was driving slow and fine on the way over there.”
Neira, a San Francisco native, won the Republican nomination for the race with 3,379 votes and will face Democrat Mark Leno in November. She said she didn’t know if the incident would hurt her campaign.
“I’m devastated,” she said. “Those people came from Sacramento to celebrate, to have a good time.”
Reach J.K. Dineen at jdineen@sfexaminer.com.
|
