Redwood City police use license plate reader data to solve fatal hit-and-run case

The Redwood City Police Department says an automated license plate reader helped detectives identify and arrest a suspect in a fatal hit-and-run crash that killed a 72-year-old woman over Memorial Day weekend.

Police said officers were called around 1 p.m. on May 24 to the area of Middlefield Road and Beech Street in Redwood City for reports of a vehicle striking a pedestrian.

Officers found the woman near the intersection with critical injuries. She was later declared dead at an area hospital.

Detectives later recovered surveillance video that captured the collision and identified the suspect vehicle as a late-model white Toyota Tundra, police said. They were then able to use license plate reader data to search for vehicles matching that description in the area at the time of the crash.

Investigators said the search led detectives to a single vehicle connected to a local address.

On May 25, officers located the suspected truck parked in the driveway of the registered owner's home. The vehicle was seized as evidence while detectives continued their investigation.

Authorities said the registered owner and driver of the truck, identified as 52-year-old Francisco Gallardo Alvarez of Redwood City, later went to the police department on his own accord on Thursday.

Gallardo Alvarez was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run resulting in injury or death, police said. He was booked into the San Mateo County Maguire Correctional Facility.

The name of the woman killed was not released.