Man struck and killed by police SUV in Huntington Beach was Rancho Palos Verdes resident

A Huntington Beach police SUV struck and killed a Rancho Palos Verdes man in Sunset Beach while responding to a call for service early Saturday.

The crash happened at about 5:30 a.m. on North Pacific Avenue, near Broadway, California Highway Patrol officials said in a news release. A pedestrian was hit and later pronounced dead at a hospital. He was identified as Derrick Deon Flanders, 45, of Rancho Palos Verdes by Orange County Coroner’s officials.

Bucky Lee, 40, lives less than a block away from the scene of the crash, and said the area was blocked off by yellow tape for hours on Saturday. Brightly colored evidence markers sat in the street, several feet away from a stop sign, as he passed by at about 7 a.m. that day. One was next to what appeared to be a fairly new pair of Vans shoes.

The officer behind the wheel of the Ford Explorer that struck Flanders has been placed on administrative leave while the crash is under investigation, which is “common” whenever an officer is involved in a fatal collision, Huntington Beach police said in a statement Tuesday morning. He had been identified only as 22-year-old “Robert M.” in a department news release. Details regarding the nature of the call he was responding to and where he was going were not immediately made public.

The collision is under investigation by the CHP. They have asked anyone who may have witnessed it to contact investigators at their Westminster-area office at (714) 892-4426.

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