Fairfield police: Suspect confessed in fatal hit-and-run crash

BRIDGEPORT - Fairfield police said Jairo Lopez-Bonillo admitting striking a motorcycle driver with his sports utility vehicle and then fleeing the scene earlier this month.

“Jairo stated he imagined the (motorcyclist) was injured but (he) was surprised and nervous and left the scene,” police stated in a report released Wednesday.

However, Lopez-Bonillo’s lawyer, Dennis Bradley, said he may challenge the alleged confession.

“My client is Spanish speaking and many times things get lost in the translation,” Bradley said.

The motorcyclist, 26-year-old Hazem Mohamed, of First Street, Fairfield, died shortly after the Aug. 2 crash at Bridgeport Hospital.

About a dozen members of his family filled the arraignment court Wednesday morning as Lopez-Bonillo made his first appearance before a judge. He is charged with negligent homicide and evading responsibility.

He is free after posting $250,000 bond.

Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney Peter Cunniff urged Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton to order Lopez-Bonillo not to drive while the case is pending, and to surrender his passport.

Cunniff told the judge that because Lopez-Bonillo is not a U.S. citizen he could be considered a flight risk.

The judge agreed to enter the orders and also ordered Lopez-Bonillo to undergo substance and mental health evaluation and treatment if necessary. She continued the case to Oct. 4.

“We just wanted to ensure that justice is served,” the victim’s sister, Mariam Mohamed, said later. “My brother deserves justice.”

Shortly after 7:15 p.m. on Aug. 2, police said they received a report of a collision at the intersection of Kings Highway East and Jennings Road between a motorcycle and a SUV.

When officers got to the scene they found the operator of the motorcycle, later identified as Mohamed, lying on his back in the roadway, still wearing his helmet. Police said the SUV involved in the crash had left the scene.

Police said witnesses told them that the motorcyclist had been traveling west on Kings Highway East and as it entered the intersection it was struck by the SUV which had been traveling eastbound and drove into the motorcycle. Police said the SUV had briefly slowed down after the collision but then had sped away north on Jennings Road, according to witnesses.

Officers viewed surveillance camera footage and were able to track the SUV to Pansy Road in Fairfield, police said. When they got there, police said they were told the SUV had been driven by Lopez-Bonillo who was working on the house at that address. But police said Lopez-Bonillo was not there.

Police said officers subsequently went to Lopez-Bonillo’s home on Norman Street in Bridgeport. When they got there they found Lopez-Bonillo sitting in the passenger’s seat of a car that was pulling out of the driveway.

The driver of the car, who identified herself as the defendant’s wife, yelled at the officers, “We are headed to the police station now,” police said.

Police said the woman then told officers that her husband had gotten into a collision with a motorcycle “got scared and drove from the scene.”