SAN JOSE – Friends, family and strangers are mourning the loss of a young woman caught up in a possible street race in San Jose, killed as she was out jogging a mile from her home.
But Kiran Pabla’s brother was too distraught to speak to NBC Bay Area on Tuesday morning, the day after his 24-year-old sister was killed on Yerba Buena Road near Edenwood Drive.
He was visibly upset, however, and pointed to a metal guardrail on the road, wishing it had been built differently, so that it could have protected his sister from being sandwiched between a BMW and Nissan Altima, both traveling faster than 70 mph, police said.
Sgt. Heather Randol said the two were likely involved in a street race, and killed Pabla as she was jogging on the sidewalk or in the bike lane. She was pinned between one of the cars and a tree, police said, when they lost control and hit a guardrail.
Gabriel Becerra Esparza, 18, (left) and Manuel Anthony Maldanado-Avalos, 23, all of San Jose, were arrested on vehicular manslaughter charges after Kiran Pabla, 24, was killed in a likely street crash.
Mayor Sam Liccardo took the opportunity to put out a call for more police officers, saying “there’s more we can do to combat street racing. We know it will take more police officers.”
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday morning had not received the case against Gabriel Bacerra Esparza, 18, and Manual Maldonado-Avalos, 23, who were arrested on Monday after the fatal crash. The two were being held without bail on charges of vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving causing great bodily injury. Both are San Jose residents.
Pabla graduated from Silver Creek High School in San Jose and had been pursuing a degree in business at California State University East Bay in Hayward.
