Viral video of a street takeover leads police to a hit-and-run suspect

Viral footage of a roadside takeover in Orange County helped authorities identify the driver of a hit-and-run that sent two people to the hospital, Anaheim police said.

A livestreamer captured the entire incident on Kick.com around 2 a.m. Friday, as a black Dodge Charger did donuts around a crowd of onlookers and drifted dangerously close while a passenger in a white hoodie leaned halfway out of the car and posed for photos .

“That’s fire, brother,” the streamer says in the background. But the excitement quickly turns to horror when the driver suddenly runs into the crowd and runs over people. The crowd crowds around the car and people start jumping on the windshield, the video shows. “There’s another guy under there,” shouts the streamer.

Minutes later, sirens can be heard as police arrive on scene at the intersection of State College Boulevard and Orangewood Avenue. Police said the driver fled the scene before they arrived, but based on social media footage and other clues, they identified the suspected driver as Hassan Hamid Ali.

The 20-year-old Torrance man was arrested Sunday evening and charged with suspicion of hit-and-run and speeding.

From another angle of the night, a video shows two injured people lying on their stomachs on the ground, one with blood on his head. Sergeant. Matt Sutter, a public information officer with the Anaheim Police Department, said the victims were both 19 years old, one from the city of Orange and the other from Lancaster.

The two suffered cuts, scrapes and broken bones but were conscious and still in stable condition at the hospital, Sutter added.

Street takeovers have become popular in Southern California since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and have drawn the ire of officials and community members as they have consistently proven deadly.

Sutter said law enforcement was previously able to better track these gatherings based on public social media posts, but tactics have changed, making it difficult to predict where the next takeover might take place.

In late September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed four bills aimed at preventing stunt driving and racing on California roads.