Suspect charged with murder after Alec Sanders, Alhambra police officer killed in pursuit crash
The driver of a stolen SUV that collided with a police vehicle in Alhambra, killing a 28-year-old officer , has been charged with murder.
The charge was filed Monday against El Monte resident Steven Zapata, 27, in connection to the death of Officer Alec Sanders.
Sanders died in an early-morning crash Thursday when he was chasing a stolen Hyundai, driven by Zapata, and collided with the vehicle at the intersection of Edgewood Street and Valley Boulevard.
A passenger, Gabriela Moreno, 42, was killed after she was ejected from the Hyundai. Another passenger was injured.
Zapata remains hospitalized.
Sanders had been with the Alhambra Police Department for only eight months.
He was covering the shift of a colleague when he was fatally injured. Sanders, who previously worked for about a year with the Long Beach Police Department, leaves behind a fiancée, two younger sisters and a brother.
City News Service contributed to this report.
