Man arrested in fatal hit-and-run 3 years later

Police say suspected driver was linked to crime through DNA

OAKLAND >> More than three years after a pedestrian was struck by a car and killed on International Boulevard, the suspected driver has been arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter, court records show.

Alejandro Ayala Salinas, 24, was charged with manslaughter with gross negligence and leaving the scene of an accident. According to police statements in court records, Ayala Salinas confessed to being the driver and admitted to filing a false stolen car report, which he claimed his cousin suggested he do.

During his police interview, Ayala Salinas allegedly claimed he was street racing a BMW, which led to thecrash.

“Ayala believes that the BMW clipped the rear of his car, which caused him to lose control,” Oakland police Detective Joseph Foreman wrote in a probable cause statement. “Ayala stated that he had the choice of hitting a car that had child seats in it or hitting the bus stop. Ayala said that he saw blood on the windshield and that he knew he had hit someone.”

Police allege that Ayala Salinas, driving a Dodge Charger, stuck and killed Mark Anthony Johnson near the parking lot of a Walgreens on the 8100 block of International Boulevard in Oakland, a little after midnight on Dec. 7, 2017. Ayala Salinas allegedly got out of his car and ran from the area, then about 50 minutes later filed a report that the vehicle had been stolen.

Investigators took DNA samples from air bags that had activated during the crash, and in 2019 they were advised DNA on the deployed air bags had been linked to Ayala Salinas, according to an Oakland police probable cause statement. An arrest warrant was issued later that year, and Ayala Salinas was arrested in Southern California last November, according to court records.

Earlier this month, detectives conducted the interview with Ayala Salinas, in which he allegedly claimed it was his cousin who convinced him to file the false stolen car report.

Ayala Salinas is in Santa Rita Jail in lieu of $125,000 bail, court records show. He has not yet entered a plea, according to court records.