This post has been corrected to revise the statement that originally said Commissary Lounge is located at the LAB. It has not been for years. The first name of a hit-and-run suspect is also corrected. OC Weekly regrets the errors.
The first of two hit-and-runs of motorists vs. pedestrians within less than two miles and 24 hours of one another in Costa Mesa was kicked off by a man police say was asked to leave the Commissary Lounge because he was drunk, got behind the wheel of his car, struck a second guy walking along the street and drove off.
This happened around 1:45 a.m. Sunday near the bar at 2968 Randolph Ave., Unit 2, Costa Mesa.
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The victim was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana with moderate, non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Costa Mesa Police Department (CMPD).
No other details were released on how police caught up with the driver, who was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
Commissary Lounge is a mile-and-three-quarters-ish from the intersection of Fairview Road and Baker Street, where around 1:30 Monday morning a 15-year-old girl carrying a skateboard and crossing against a red light was struck by a white SUV heading south on Fairview, Costa Mesa Police report in a second statement.
She flew about 50 feet from the point of impact, according to witnesses, and was also taken to Western Medical Center with a minor skull fracture. Police report she was in serious but stable condition.
The driver fled the scene and turned off his headlights to avoid being spotted, but he was followed by a witness to an apartment in the 1200 block of Adams Avenue, where 22-year-old Ryoto Takamatsu was later arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run and DUI, according to police.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.