The driver suspected of killing an 84-year-old World War II veteran in an early-morning hit-and-run crash on Veterans Day has been arrested and charged, the district attorney’s office announced today.
Isaac Hudson, of San Francisco, was killed when a 1990 Lexus slammed into his Ford Escort shortly after midnight on Nov. 11 at the intersection of Alemany Boulevard and Congdon Street in the Outer Mission neighborhood.
According to police, witnesses saw three men run from the car after the crash.
Hudson was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators now believe 20-year-old Arthur Clark Jr., of San Francisco, was the driver of the Lexus that struck Hudson’s car at about 50 miles per hour, according to the district attorney’s office.
Prosecutors have charged Clark, who was already in custody in San Francisco on an unrelated drug charge, with felony vehicular manslaughter, felony hit-and-run, and driving on a suspended license. Arraignment in San Francisco Superior Court is scheduled for Thursday morning.
Hudson, a U.S. Army veteran who served at the battle of Normandy, the Rhineland Campaign and the Ardennes Offensive, was awarded the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater Campaign Medal with five bronze service stars, the Good Conduct Medal and the World War II Victory Medal, prosecutors said.
He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1946 and then returned to the United States to raise his family. He received a bachelor’s degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco in 1984, and a master’s degree in public administration from the school in 1987.
The district attorney’s office today revealed some of the alleged evidence against Clark, which included a reported DNA match between Clark and a sample obtained from the deployed airbag of the abandoned Lexus.
In addition, the Lexus was registered to Clark’s girlfriend and evidence in Clark’s name, including a San Francisco County Jail bracelet bearing his name, was found in the car, the district attorney’s office said.
Prosecutors praised a “first-rate investigation” by police Inspector Lori Cadigan and officers from the Ingleside Station.
Clark, who is being held on $1 million bail in the vehicular manslaughter case, is on felony probation for weapons violations and has a no-bail hold for a probation violation.
He was most recently arrested on Nov. 20 and charged with possession of marijuana for sale, according to the district attorney’s office.
