South Sound News

Hit-and-run driver accused of killing pedestrian in Spanaway has been charged

SPANAWAY, Wash. — A 19-year-old was charged Thursday in a hit-and-run that left a man walking alongside a Spanaway road dead earlier this year.

Bailey Losey is charged with vehicular homicide and failure to remain at an accident resulting in death for the Jan. 15 crash that killed Ariel Vasquez Lopez, 40.

Pierce County sheriff’s detectives arrested Losey in February after several tips came in identifying him as the driver.

Charging papers give this account:

A passerby found Lopez lying in the street on the night of Jan. 15 and called 911.

Lopez was taken to Tacoma General Hospital, where he died the next day.

Deputies believe Lopez was walking on the westbound shoulder in the 1400 block of 152nd Street East when he was struck.

The only evidence left at the scene was the side mirror of a vehicle.

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Workers at a local body shop inspected the mirror and told deputies it likely belonged to a Toyota Camry.

When deputies spotted Losey driving a Toyota Camry with a missing headlight a few days later, they pulled him over and asked about the headlight.

Losey allegedly told deputies he’d been in an accident a few days before and hadn’t fixed the damage.

That’s about the same time the Sheriff’s Department put out information about the hit-and-run and asked anyone with information to come forward.

Several people allegedly called the tip line with information about Losey’s girlfriend, who apparently told people she and Losey had been involved in an accident in the same area where Lopez was hit.

“She told people that she and the defendant returned to the area but did not see anything,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers. “They later both learned through social media that someone died in the same area and at the same time they had hit something.”

They did not go to the police after learning about Lopez’s death.

Deputies served a search warrant at Losey’s parents’ South Hill home, where they found the Toyota Camry in the garage.

Neighbors said they noticed no front-end damage to the car prior to Jan. 15 and that it was usually parked outside rather than in a garage.

Losey is scheduled to be arraigned July 5.

For more on this story, visit The News Tribune.