One dead after wrong-way crash in El Cerrito

A burglary at a tobacco store started sequence

The burglary of a tobacco products store in El Cerrito early Tuesday unleashed a sequence that ended with one person dead and three seriously injured when the fleeing suspects caused a three-vehicle wrong-way crash within the MacArthur Maze, authorities said.

A person driving a BMW on eastbound Interstate 580 died after a truck suspected to be involved in the burglary turned around near the Bay Bridge toll plaza and drove into it and a white van on westbound I-580, according to California Highway Patrol spokesperson Officer Adib Zeid.

El Cerrito police in a statement said an officer pursued the truck onto westbound I-80 and followed it toward the toll plaza but did not pursue it after the driver turned around. The officers then got off the freeway, police said.

The crash happened about 4:30 a.m. on westbound I-580 at the maze leading to I-80, Zeid said. It caused a long traffic backup during the commute early Tuesday that stretched well onto I-80 and to the Caldecott

Tunnel on Highway 24.

The sequence of events began about 4:20 a.m. with a commercial burglary at Tobacco Outlet in the 10100 block of San Pablo Avenue. Police said a pickup truck rammed the front of the business.

“It took down the front window and smashed glass,” El Cerrito Police Chief Paul Keith said by phone. “They took things from the store. We collected evidence of that both at the store and at the crash scene.”

Calls to the business Thursday morning were met with a busy signal.

Police said an officer in a patrol car spotted the truck and tried to stop it, but that the driver did not stop. The truck also had a passenger, police said.

The driver of the BMW died at the scene. Authorities did not identify that person Tuesday morning, pending the notification of relatives.

The driver and and passenger in the truck and the driver of the van all were taken by ambulance to hospitals for treatment. They all suffered major injuries, Zeid said.

Authorities planned to place the two people from the truck under arrest on unspecified charges once they were released from the hospital.

All lanes on the freeways had been re-opened by 9 a.m.