Two girls struck at bus stop

They were quietly waiting at a Santa Rosa bus stop Saturday morning when a blur of a white pickup smashed into the side of a parked van and suddenly was upon them.

Asefredo Pineda leaped out of way toward a nearby hedge. When he got up, he saw his daughters on the ground.

His younger daughter, Cruz Yesenia, a 13-year-old student at Herbert Slater Middle School, had a frightening injury to her head. His other daughter, 16-year-old Deysi Emelia, was talking and crying out.

"I threw myself over them," Pineda said, speaking in Spanish. His eyes welled up as he stood near the scene of the crash on Yulupa Avenue, the mangled white pickup resting on its side, with smoke pouring out, near the concrete bus stop bench.

The driver of the pickup, who fled from the scene, was apprehended by Santa Rosa police about four hours later on suspicion of hit and run causing serious injury and driving under the influence. He was identified as Michael Robert Tweedie, 35, of Rohnert Park and was booked into Sonoma County Jail.

The violent crash shattered the usual calm of the east Santa Rosa neighborhood. The speeding pickup struck hit at least one other vehicle and flipped several times before it landed near the bus stop.

The sound of the accident came in a series of jarring impacts of metal against asphalt.

"I heard one boom and this car was in the air flipping over," said Devon Gentry, 24, a local resident who was standing at the intersection of Yulupa and Sonoma avenues about 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

"The way it sounded, it must have flipped at least three times, because it went boom, boom, boom," he said. Another resident said he heard "five booms."

Police and medical emergency personnel were on the scene within minutes and the two girls were transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Cruz Yesenia, who was in critical condition, was then flown by helicopter to Children's Hospital in Oakland shortly after noon.

Deysi Emelia, a student at Montgomery High School, was in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

"She'll be okay," said Pineda, a dishwasher at Coco's restaurant on Farmers Lane. "But my other daughter . . . I don't think she'll live."

At Memorial, Pineda was joined by his wife and son, Arnulfo, 19, outside the emergency room and they watched as the red REACH helicopter clipped through the air with Cruz Yesenia.

"This guy has got to pay for what he did, otherwise there is no law," said Arnulfo Pineda, who works at a downtown Santa Rosa restaurant.

Asefredo Pineda said he and his daughters were waiting for the bus en route to visit a sick relative who lives in Apple Valley. He said he didn't see the driver flee the scene because he was focused on his daughters.

Sarah King, 31, who lives on Claremont Court, said she heard the crash from her house and walked out to see what had happened.

"I was coming out of my house when I saw a man running down the street," King said. "I asked if everyone is okay and he said, 'Yes.' Then I added, 'Are you okay?' and he ignored me and kept running."

The street was cordoned off as a crime scene throughout the day and Santa Rosa police officials said their investigation was ongoing.

Sgt. Doug Schlief said investigators pursued several "miscellaneous reports" throughout the day. One report led police patrol cars to the parking lot of the 7-Eleven convenience store on Mission Boulevard near Montgomery Drive at about 1 p.m.

Josh Conway, a construction worker who lives in a nearby apartment complex, said he saw a large man who fit the description of the driver in the parking lot between the 7-Eleven and the apartment complex.

Conway said that when he came out of the store, he saw the man talking on a pay phone, smoking a cigarette.

A few minutes later, police patrol cars sped to an apartment complex on Mission Boulevard just north of Highway 12. Tweedie was taken into custody at about 1:15 p.m.

Yulupa Avenue between Sonoma Avenue and Spring Creek Drive was shut down for several hours while officers investigated the accident.

(You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213

or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.)