The SFPD has made an arrest in Tuesday's hit-and-run collision at Polk and Hyde that took the life of a 29-year-old woman, and the suspect is the registered owner of the vehicle whose driver fled the scene.
San Francisco police announced the arrest Friday of 57-year-old Virgil Woods, of San Francisco — who has a record of some serious crimes a decade ago. Woods is the owner of the white Chevy Avalanche that allegedly ran a red light, struck an Audi in the intersection, and then struck two pedestrians on the street, one of whom died.
The @SFPD have made an arrest in the hit and run that happened on Tuesday at Polk and Hayes. Our hearts go out to the victims of this tragedy and I want to thank the Police Department for their work in this case. pic.twitter.com/ErqhBA8Rgz
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) May 22, 2021
The woman who was killed has been identified as 29-year-old software engineer Lovisa Svallingson. The man she was walking with who was also hit, 30-year-old Danny Ramos, was her partner, and he remains in critical condition. As the Chronicle reports, the two appear to have met at Denver’s Turing School of Software and Design.
According to the SFPD, immediately after the May 18 crash and after he fled the scene, Woods "discarded articles of clothing in an apparent effort to conceal his identity and later filed a false police report stating that his Avalanche had been stolen."
The circumstances of Woods's arrest are not clear, and police only say that he was arrested without incident Friday at 1 p.m. at the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street. They say that at the time of his arrest, Woods was in possession of "several glass smoking pipes commonly used to ingest narcotics."
He now faces charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, vehicular manslaughter in the commission of an unlawful act, felony hit and run, reckless driving resulting in bodily injury, failure to stop for a red light, filing a false police report, destruction of evidence, and possession of narcotics paraphernalia.
A screenshot of Woods's record from SF Superior Court shows arrests and charges for both petty and violent crimes in 2010 and 2011. Though conviction information is not clear, it seems that Woods may have previously served time for an assault with a deadly weapon and a burglary in May 2011 — there should be more information on his record in the coming days.
Maybe @melG679 can decipher Virgil Woods criminal history in SF Superior Court? pic.twitter.com/NRk0OwVyPx
— EyesOnFairOaks (@eyesonfairoaks) May 22, 2021
"Our hearts go out to the victims of this tragedy and I want to thank the Police Department for their work in this case," Mayor London Breed said Friday.
A GoFundMe has been launched to raise money in anticipation of Ramos's medical expenses. He remains in critical condition.