Speeding suspected in double fatal crash

2 Santa Fe men killed when Chevy Cobalt was struck by BMW

SANTA FE — A Santa Fe man who survived a car crash in which two other men were killed is now being investigated for vehicular homicide after police say there is evidence that he was possibly going up to 45 mph over the posted speed limit and didn’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign.

Christopher Bryant, 30, and 33-year-old Ian Sweatt, both of Santa Fe, were killed when a BMW 335i driven by 38-yearold Karimi Mansoor T-boned the Chevrolet Cobalt they were in at Camino Carlos Rey and Plaza Verde around 8:20 p.m. Dec. 16.

Bryant, the driver, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Sweatt was pronounced dead at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. Mansoor walked away from the crash and was found not to have been under the inf luence of drugs or alcohol, according to the Santa Fe Police Department.

An affidavit for a warrant to search Mansoor’s BMW for electronic crash data says a witness told police that he was going north on Camino Carlos Rey and saw Mansoor’s BMW go past him in the opposite direction at 60 to 70 mph. Santa Fe police officer James Plummer wrote that the point of contact between the two cars was 44 feet into the intersection, which has a four-way stop.

The BMW hit the Cobalt on its driver’s side, and both cars traveled some distance south on Camino Carlos Rey, leading Plummer to believe that Mansoor was driving much faster than the posted 25-mph speed limit.

“With my training and experience, the BMW 335i could not have accelerated to a speed of approximately 70 mph in that distance if it had come to a complete stop at the stop sign,”Plummer wrote.

When Plummer asked Mansoor if he would speak with him without a lawyer present, Mansoor said, “I think I will talk to my lawyer.”

Mansoor had two separate speeding violations and an aggravated DWI charge in 2011, but all those charges were dropped by a Santa Fe Magistrate Court Judge, according to online court records.