Drivers who called 911 near the Tennessee Street off-ramp on westbound Interstate 10 in Redlands initially thought they were looking at a mannequin dumped along the shoulder. It was a body — that of 27-year-old Redlands resident Christian Gillespie, struck and killed by a vehicle whose driver fled the scene and remains unidentified.
The California Highway Patrol’s San Bernardino office was notified around 11:23 a.m. on September 2 of a pedestrian down along the right shoulder and dirt embankment where westbound I-10 connects to westbound State Route 210, according to onscene.tv. CHP officers who responded confirmed it was a vehicle-versus-pedestrian crash with fatal injuries, and Gillespie was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency personnel.
Investigators believe Gillespie had actually been struck several hours before those calls came in, with dispatch logging reports between roughly 10:27 a.m. and 11:23 a.m., according to Patch. That gap has left investigators trying to reconstruct not just who was driving, but exactly when the crash happened.
Investigators Turn to License Plate Cameras for Leads
The vehicle and driver involved remain outstanding, per CHP, and officers are now checking nearby Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras in hopes of identifying the car that struck Gillespie and never stopped, the same Patch report notes. The Redlands Police Department already relies on that camera network across city corridors to generate investigative leads for regional law enforcement, according to a Flock Safety account of the program…